DRAFT TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND ...

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by parliament; as government-commissioned reports backed by White Paper, and as specific
policy directives. The former national development plan, Vision 2020 (1996 – 2000), the
Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy I (2003- 2005), the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy II
(2006 - 2009) and, the Draft Medium-Long Term Development Plan (2008-2015) fall in
the first category of policy. All of these plans are supposed to set the tone and direction for
TVET policies at lower levels. For instance, the latest national development plan aims
“To make Ghana a fast growing industrializing economy with more than half
employment in formal non-agricultural sectors by 2015” (NDPC, 2008). To realize
this goal, government will transform the structure of the economy and enhance the
productivity of all resources (including human and physical). One key strategy for
achieving this objective is “Industrializing on the back of modern agriculture” and
another is “Investing in people for enhanced productivity” (NDPC, 2008). The key
manufacturing sub-sectors targeted for focused development are: food and beverages;
textiles and garments; metal fabrication, plastic products, electronics and ICT; wood
and furniture; and pharmaceuticals (NDPC, 2008, p.60). By coincidence, the national
TVET policy which had been developed earlier devoted a chapter to building human
resource base for increased manufacturing and industrialization, listing all the targeted
sub-sectors except pharmaceuticals.
Sector-ministry policies that have bearing on TVET include MoESS’s Education Strategic
Plan (ESP) and the forthcoming National Education Reform Implementation Committee
(NERIC); and MoMYE’s Youth Employment Implementation Guidelines (GoG, as
cieted in King, Korboe, & Plamer, 2006). Existing laws which guide TVET delivery
include the NVTI Act of 1970; the National Board for Professional and Technician
Examinations (NABPTEX) Act, 1994 (Act 492), the Children’s Act, 1998, the
COTVET Act, 2006 (Act 718), and the Polytechnic Act, 2007 (Act 745). Then there
is the National Policy on TVET which has not been gazetted as an official policy
document but whose main contents were integrated into the Report of the President’s
Committee on Review of Education Reforms in Ghana (2002) with a White Paper to
support.
So, though Ghana has developed a comprehensive national policy on TVET, the
policy document itself has remained in “Draft” form, yet the substantive element of
the policy, the establishment of the Council for Technical and Vocational Education
and Training has been passed into law, the COTVET Act. As the Draft TVET Policy
has no statutory status, and as existing conflicting legal mandates exist, the power of
the policy is uncertain. In fact, conflicting legal mandates and conflicting sectorministry
policies may undermine the operation of COTVET when it begins to
function.
The main elements of the draft policy which COTVET will implement are: the establishment
of an apex body charged with the supervision and coordination of all aspects of TVET in
Ghana, the establishment of a national TVET qualification framework (see Appendix B4)
which seeks to eliminate the multiplicity of testing and certification systems in the TVET