As part of efforts by the Government of Ghana and its Donor Partners, to ensure that a demand-driven and robust labour market skills intelligence system drives the implementation of TVET Strategies in the country, a secretariat for the Sector Skills Bodies of Ghana has been established for the bodies to operate from.
The secretariat was constructed by GIZ Ghana through the Ghana Skills Development Initiative (GSDI III) Project, with additional funding support from the European Union (EU) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO)
Sector Skill Bodies are national partnership organizations that bring together all the stakeholders – industry, labour and training providers - for the common purpose of workforce development for specific industry sectors. The Bodies aim to achieve these goals by developing an understanding of the future skills needs in their various industries and contributing to the development of national occupational standards and apprenticeship frameworks, to reduce skills gaps and shortages, while boosting the skills set of their sector labour force.
At the inauguration event, the Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum said “in order to reduce unemployment and improve our education and curriculum, we must incorporate the needs of the private sector players in the process.” He further commended the Commission for TVET and its development partners, especially the German Government for the support to the Development of TVET in Ghana.
On her part, the Country Director of GIZ Ghana Regina Barbosa, admonished members of the Sector Skills bodies to use the facility judiciously to ensure that the aims and objectives for its establishment are fully realized.
GSDI has so far supported the establishment of three sector skills bodies in the Construction, Agriculture and Tourism and Hospitality sectors in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) “Skill-up” Project. GSDI has further supported various capacity building measures for the established sector skills bodies to enable them to fulfil their functions. These capacity building measures include a study tour to India, development of sector skills strategies, leadership trainings, skills anticipation trainings and the development of career pathway maps.
GIZ, through the eskillsforGirls, and Energy Efficiency for the Productive Sector in Ghana (DKTI) projects supported the establishment of SSBs for the ICT and Renewable Energy Sectors respectively.
