The Government of Ghana with support from its donor partners has inaugurated a new Secretariat for the Sector Skills Bodies to boost the implementation of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) strategies in the country.

The move aims to guarantee a demand-driven and robust labour market skills intelligence system for Ghana's socio-economic development.

The new secretariat is constructed by GIZ Ghana through the Ghana Skills Development Initiative (GSDI III) Project, with funding support from the European Union (EU) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) to enhance the operations of the Sector Skill Bodies in the country.

The Sector Skill Bodies are national partnership organizations which encompass all the stakeholders such as industry, labour and training providers with the common purpose of developing strong, efficient and effective workforce for the industrial sector.

The Bodies also aim to identify the future skills needs of the various industries and to develop national occupational standards and apprenticeship frameworks that would reduce skills gaps and shortages among others.

Speaking at the official inauguration of the Secretariat in Accra, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister for Education, commended the Commission and its development partners, especially the German Government for the support towards the Development of TVET in Ghana.

He said in order to reduce unemployment and improve the standards of education in the country, it was imperative to incorporate the needs of the private sector players in the decision-making processes.

The Country Director of GIZ Ghana, Regina Barbosa said the German Development Cooperation was convinced that with demand driven training provided to job-seeking youth, the labour market would be filled with more competent and qualified persons as employees or service providers.

"It is for this reason that the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation has committed about 27 Million Euros towards the implementation of the Programme for Sustainable Economic Development (PSED), with TVET being an integral part of it. This funding support has led to the extension of the Ghana Skills Development Initiative (GSDI) to October 2022," she said.

Regina Barbosa admonished members of the Sector Skills Bodies to use the facility judiciously to ensure that the aims and objectives for its establishment were fully realized.

Mr. Timothy Dolan, Team Leader for Trade and Macro-economic Delegation of the EU in Ghana, disclosed that during the last financial framework 2014-2020, the European Commission committed nearly 2 billion euros to Africa in the form of bilateral education and Vocational Education and Training (VET) programmes.

"We confirm that VET support will be pivotal also in our financial framework 2021-2027 and our new Multi Annual Indicative Programme for Ghana will most certainly include specific activities on skills development," Mr. Dolan said.

Mr. Philipp Stalder, the Swiss Ambassador to Ghana, assured that Switzerland will continue to support Ghana to become a resilient and self-dependent country.

"Through our cooperation activities, we want to promote attractive framework conditions for sustainable growth and thus the creation of decent income opportunities for the population".

According to him, the development of skills for employment and entrepreneurship will continue to be on their agenda, and are looking forward to discussing with their partners how they could expand and deliver greater impacts from the ongoing works in the skills sector.