How to create educational pathways for Ghana’s youth

A recent video published by BBC News Pidgin Channel of a 17-year-old junior high school graduate who has built an electric motorbike for disabled people from scrap materials attracted much attention as it was shared and liked by those who saw it.

It is amazing how this young person, who has completed junior high school, has put together an electric motorbike with a variety of character features, and also expressed how he loved science.

This is not the first time a video of a young person from Ghana, who has built a device from scrap materials, has been published on social media.

While these videos show the genius in the raw talents of the young persons, they also appear to demonstrate a lack of careers education and guidance in the education system to nurture such talents into inventors and industrialists. Indeed, an important but less frequently debated topic in Ghana’s education sector is career education and guidance.

These occurrences beget questioning: What is lacking in Ghana’s educational system that is denying young people the opportunity to hone their raw skills and talents in the most appropriate and rewarding way?

This account seeks to establish what is lacking in our educational system; what is being done or what needs to be done to educate young people on career management skills as they complete school and find themselves on the threshold of the tertiary education phase.

Career guidance is essential

Careers education and guidance are an essential part of young people’s education. It gives young people vital information on the world of work and the educational pathways they can explore, thereby empowering them to make the right choices about further education, apprenticeship, training or career pathways.

Ultimately, when young people in education are given career guidance, it helps them to develop career management skills which they need to navigate through the world of work.

There is a benefit to the country that provides careers education and guidance to its youth.

The benefit is that it will ensure young people do not become NEET – not in education, employment or training.

The video of this young person as mentioned above raises questions about the impact of the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sub-sector of Ghana’s education system.

As a follow-up, I reviewed the ministry of education’s strategic plan (2018-30) and it revealed that the TVET sub-sector has been saddled with challenges.

Among the numerous challenges listed are that:

• TVET has a poor public image as it is thought that TVET is for students who are not academically endowed;

• There is a low social demand for TVET – less than 7% of those completing junior high school opt for this route;

• The public has inadequate knowledge on the role of TVET in socio-economic development;

• There is a low public awareness of employment opportunities in TVET for the youth;

• There is inadequate career guidance for the youth;

• There is inadequate recognition for TVET as one of the decent career pathways;

• Inadequate TVET centres and training resources; and

• Mismatch between skills provided by TVET and demand by industry.

It was not surprising to note in the strategic plan that one of the challenges in the TVET sub-sector was a lack of career guidance for the youth.

It explains why we often see videos of young, talented people who need guidance on how to hone their skills. It is, however, encouraging to note that the ministry of education has identified the challenges and has put a plan in place to transform TVET in Ghana.

One of the strategies noted is that the ministry intends to embark on an advocacy and communication drive to actively promote the importance of TVET in socio-economic development and establish new TVET centres with upgraded facilities.

More recommendations

In addition to the above, I would recommend the following to the ministry for consideration:

Transition support service

The ministry must embed in its strategy a transition support service for school leavers from 12-18 years of age.

This service must collaborate with industry actors to provide impartial career information and guidance on apprenticeship, traineeship, technical education or other academic options to help them make informed decisions on their next steps.

The way to facilitate this is to allocate regional or district or municipal careers advisers to have a visible presence in schools.

Apart from guiding the young people, career advisers, schools and industry actors must collaborate to organise regular careers programmes in which a range of education and training providers and employers are available to give the students first-hand information on academic and TVET qualifications, training routes, apprenticeships, the labour market and further education.

This must be part of the ministry’s broader approach to ensure that young people do not become NEET.

This service could help to ensure a seamless transition for young people at the end of each phase of their education.

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) or TVET

As mentioned earlier, TVET has been struggling and so its employment opportunities have been overlooked in the past and this has resulted in making TVET very unpopular and looked down upon by society.

TVET, if well resourced, can make meaningful contributions to the development of STEM skills.

With the government’s agenda to focus on STEM in secondary schools, this is the time to link the entire national STEM agenda to TVET to raise the profile of TVET.

In that way, both TVET and STEM will, subsequently, become career pathways for young people to choose from.

Destination measures

The ministry must embed a robust data-collection system in its operations to measure destination of students.

Schools must have a statutory responsibility to collate data on the destinations of their leavers to ensure that students go on to continue with their education and do not become NEET.

The way to facilitate this is for the schools to ensure that each leaver has been guided to identify how they want to progress their education before they leave school.

Accountability

At the end of every level of education, schools must show accountability by ensuring that each child that leaves their care has been handed over to the next educational provision or training and not left to be NEET.

This must be made a statutory responsibility of schools.

In reference to the junior high school graduate who also appeared on a TV show in Ghana, if TVET had been made an attractive education pathway and if schools had dedicated careers advisers, he would have received guidance on the pathways available to him, be it an apprenticeship programme or TVET pathway, depending on his talents and interests before he left school.

In addition, if schools had a statutory responsibility for accounting for the destinations of their leavers, they would have been able to identify that this young person needs support to progress to the next level of his education.

There is no doubt that careers education and guidance have a critical role to play in nation development and if the ministry of education has no outfit responsible for careers education and guidance, then the time to create one is overdue.

Quality education opens pathways

To conclude, high quality education is not only achieved or measured by academic work.

Quality of education encompasses a variety of inputs, processes, outcomes and outputs if education is to be made holistic. Aside from academic work, education must seek to expand the student’s outlook on careers, so they have a broad knowledge on the different education pathways available.

An effective careers education and guidance service will ensure that schools do not promote certain pathways over others, be it academic or technical.

It will also prevent or help to correct career imbalances and position young people to contribute positively to the nation’s socio-economic development.

Dr Josephine (Jo-Jo) Odjidja is a researcher in quality assurance in education and founder of Education Quality Assurance Network. She can be contacted on eqnoffice@gmail.com.