Ghana's TVET Financing Model Is Failing Students and Employers, Education Watchdog Warns

Ghana’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training system is in crisis. Despite years of economic growth, the country’s skills development framework is producing graduates who are fundamentally unprepared for the job market, according to a damning assessment delivered by the Executive Director of Africa Education Watch.

Kofi Asare, speaking at the International Conference on Education and Humanities at the University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development, painted a picture of a system that has expanded in enrolment but collapsed in quality. The numbers tell a stark story: Ghana’s economy grew by 6 percent in 2025, yet more than 1.3 million young Ghanaians aged 15 to 35 are classified as Not in Employment, Education, or Training.

“The answer is simple,” Asare told delegates. “Our growth is not sufficiently skills-rich; with the demand for skills not intersecting enough with supply.”

The GHS33 Problem

The most striking revelation in Asare’s presentation was the scale of the funding gap. Every student in a Technical and Vocational Institute receives a flat annual allocation of GHS33 for practical training materials, regardless of the programme being studied. The actual cost of training varies dramatically: catering and welding cost approximately GHS9,000 per year per student, while plumbing, electrical installation, fashion, and carpentry cost around GHS6,000 annually.

The average actual cost across trades stands at GHS6,500 per learner per year. Government funding covers just GHS33 — a 94 percent financing gap.

The consequences are immediate and measurable. A school requires 20 practical sessions a year to meet Competency-Based Training curriculum standards. Under current funding, they manage only six. Instead of dividing a class of 60 students into smaller groups for hands-on learning, schools can only afford materials for a single demonstration.

“Sixty students watching one instructor is not skills training — it is a spectacle,” Asare said.

Employers Sound the Alarm

The financing crisis is not merely an academic concern. An ACET and Eduwatch study found that 80 percent of employers identified practical training gaps as their top hiring challenge, while 70 percent cited soft skills deficiencies. Another 40 percent pointed to skills mismatch, and 30 percent reported that graduates possessed outdated knowledge of technology trends.

Fewer than 30 percent of TVET institutions receive labour market information from government, leaving them to train students for a market they cannot see.

Infrastructure and Digital Deficits

The problems extend beyond funding. Institutions across the country require hundreds of additional classroom blocks, workshops, and dormitories, along with more than 206,000 student desks and 116,000 dormitory beds. Regional inequalities are severe: the North East Region has a 100 percent shortfall in dining furniture despite all three of its TVET institutions operating as boarding schools.

The digital picture is perhaps most alarming. Only 10 out of Ghana’s 261 TVET schools have internet access. Institutions require an estimated 3,425 additional computers to meet basic ICT needs. By 2025, only 20 percent of TVET students felt adequately equipped with digital skills.

“We are training the workforce of the Fourth Industrial Revolution without internet access in 96 percent of our training institutions,” Asare observed.

A Question of Political Will

Enrolment has grown — from 32,203 learners in 2020/21 to 72,200 in 2025/26 — but the expansion has not kept pace with Ghana’s youth population. People aged 15 to 35 account for 36 percent of the population, yet only about 14 percent of secondary school students are enrolled in TVET programmes. Gender disparities persist, with men accounting for more than 73 percent of enrolment.

Asare called for the rapid establishment of a dedicated TVET Fund, reforms to the current costing model, stronger private-sector participation, increased investment in digital and green skills, and the creation of a national skills anticipation system.

“Ghana has 73.5 percent of its population below the age of 36,” he said. “That is either the country’s greatest asset or its greatest crisis; depending entirely on whether we choose to build the systems that convert potential into capability.”

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