IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

"...............A closer look at Ghana's labor force suggests that the problem is both of quality and quantity, however, the proposed project chooses to focus on quality and industry-readiness of the workforce. The quantity problem is acute to be sure: less than 10% of the active labor force has a secondary school leaving certificate or higher, only 28.6% of the employed labor force held a primary or junior school certificate, 26.7% had attended school but did not hold a primary or junior high certificate, and 35.3% never went to school. But Ghana is making good progress in addressing these issues as evidenced by the EFA goals, with 86% of school age population at primary and junior secondary levels having attended school in 2008. Over time, the percentage of the uneducated in the workforce is expected to decrease. The problem of poor quality and relevance of education needs immediate attention because of several reasons. At the macro level, the quality of education and skills hampers Ghana's competitiveness. At the firm-level, shortage of skilled workers has been cited as a problem by employers.

In a survey conducted by Ghana's Employers Association, for example, 50% of surveyed employers reported hard-to-fill vacancies in their firms, and 80% of these employers noted that the vacancies had been unfilled for the past twelve months. The top three causes cited for hard-to-fill vacancies were: lack of technical or practical skills, not enough suitably qualified people, and lack of practical work experience. A sector-level assessment done for high-potential verticals (ICT, horticulture, livestock, construction) also suggests that these sectors cannot grow to full potential without expansion of the skills pool. In the ICT sector for example, software and IT companies spend 5000- 10,000 US dollars per employee to train them to productive levels, and provide them with internationally recognized industry certification. This constitutes a huge financial burden, discourages intake of new talent, and shrinks the demand for labor and skills. Furthermore, because the pool of well-trained IT professionals is small (900-1000 graduates per year with IT related higher education degree), small IT firms lose their trained employees to larger corporations such as banks and telecoms, which further discourages them to hire and train more talent. In the construction sector, jobs are expected to grow by 10-12% annually, predominantly in the informal market, and there is an unmet demand for specialized technical skills......"

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Quelle/Source: Modern Ghana, 12.03.2011

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