The five-year Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) project, dubbed, “The Better Education for Africa’s Rise (BEAR III)”, would be implemented in Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

The objective of the project is to offer employment opportunities to youth in these countries by addressing the evolving needs of the labour market.

The project, which is expected to start in Ghana next year, went through a validation process held in Accra, last Wednesday, July 19.

Representatives from the Ministry of Education, the Commission for TVET, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Ghana Trade Union Congress (TUC), the Ghana Employers Association and the Ministry of Trade and Industry, among others, were at the workshop.

Labour market

UNESCO Country Representative in Ghana, Abdourahamane Diallo, at the validation workshop, explained that BEAR III would, among other things, increase the relevance of TVET to the needs of the economy by developing a training curriculum to respond to the labour market demand for skills.

"It will enhance the quality of TVET delivered to trainees by building capacities of TVET trainers and institutions and improve the perception of TVET among young people, enterprises and society," he said.

Support

Mr Diallo also added that UNESCO and the UN system as a whole were in the country to support the government’s developmental agenda.

"We are, therefore, convinced that the BEAR III project would align well with the government’s TVET agenda, and would add significant value to the many interventions that are being implemented by the government and other actors such as  UNICEF, World Bank among others," he noted.

Agriculture

UNESCO Consultant and researcher for the BEAR III, Gita Subrahmanyam, revealed that, from her findings, the project should focus more on how to use TVET to make the agricultural sector attractive.

"To enable Ghana to move up the agricultural value chain, the project would deal with agricultural production, post-harvest management, agro-processing and climate-smart agriculture," she said.

Ms Subrahmanyam explained that given its focus, the project would have a long-term positive impact on agricultural sector productivity and profitability, food security and youth employment, among others.

Commendation

A Deputy Minister of Education in charge of TVET, Gifty Twum Ampofo, commended UNESCO and the South Korean government for the initiative.

She stressed that when the youth were skilled, they would become protectors of a country, “but when they are not, it becomes a different ball game”.

"We need to always look for ways to retool and reskill the youth to be globally competitive.

TVET is here to bridge the unemployment gap and it is for our own liberation and good," the deputy minister said.