DRAFT TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND ...

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3.5 Transition from School to Work. Existing approaches to improve transition
The basic difference between TVET and general academic education is that TVET aims to
prepare people for employment in specific occupational fields, hence the ultimate criterion for
judging the efficacy of TVET is the extent to its graduates get and remain employed.
Traditionally, Ghanaian TVET institutions have measured their success in terms of outputs
such as number of trainees who have passed the end-of-programme examinations for the
award of certificates and diplomas. Institutions have cared less about and not monitored
what happens to their students after graduation. There is therefore, little information on
student transition to the labour market.
In the mid-1990s, the efficacy of vocational education came into question as unemployment
among TVET graduates became visible and chronic. The dilemmas of transition from school
to the world of work stimulated four kinds of awareness which the TVET system is struggling
to institutionalize : (a) correcting the mismatch between curricula and industry needs; (b)
need to monitor the transition to the labour market through tracer studies; (c) need for
structured industrial attachment involving businesses, and (d) training towards selfemployment
rather than towards paid employment only.
The following extract from the Education Sector Performance Report 2008 (MoESS, 2008, p.
136) summarizes the nature of the mismatch between training provided and industry
expectations:
Formal industry in Ghana appears to be generally of the view that TTIs can provide
people with theoretical technical skills but not workplace skills. For example, the
Human Resource Manager of a large textile company in Tema commented about TTI
graduates:
“They have heard about theory but know nothing about practicals. So when
they come you have to train them and in almost everything …. And almost all
industries have the same problem.”
In fact, industry frustration with the public TVET system and the perceived low
quality of graduates coming out of the system led a number of industries to back the
Ghana Industrial Skills Development Centre, an institution separate from any
government ministry and allied to the Association of Ghana Industries.
A few establishments were interviewed during this mapping exercise about the performance
of trainees and graduates from TVET institutions. Here are some excerpts from the
interviews:
Excerpt No.1
In general, when trainees come to GCAA for training or attachment, it takes
them a long time for them to adjust and appreciate what is on the ground.
Because of the deficiencies in training in our schools GCAA prefers taking
Senior High school graduates and rather than taking products from TVET
institutions to train them in the specialised areas in Airport Operations, Fire
and Aviation Security while on the job.
Excerpt No. 2: Electricals
Trainees lack competencies in (1) Wiring, (2) Tracing Fault, (3) Identifying
and knowing the difference between high voltage and low voltage and (4)
knowing how these two voltage systems are handled.