The Director General of the Commission for TVET, Dr. Fred Kyei Asamoah has disclosed that since the launch of the Ghana Apprenticeship Programme, 10,708 beneficiaries have so far been enrolled.
It will be recalled that on 13th March, 2024 the Vice President of the Republic and Presidential Candidate for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), H.E Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, launched the nationwide Ghana Apprenticeship Programme (GAP), under the auspices of the Commission for Technical Vocational Education Training (CTVET), in Accra.
At the launch, Dr. Bawumia noted that, “the programme will facilitate a shift from conventional methods to a competency-based approach, ensuring that apprentices are equipped not only with theoretical knowledge but also with practical, industry-relevant skills. By modernizing the apprenticeship system, GAP strives to make it more adaptable to the evolving needs of industries, enhancing the employability of apprentices and contributing to the overall competitiveness of the Ghanaian workforce”.
Speaking to the media at a press engagement organized by CTVET on Friday, 16th August, 2024 to provide updates on the implementation of GAP, Dr. Asamoah indicated that, so far, in addition to the previous apprenticeship programme called the Ghana TVET Voucher Project which as at the end of July, 2024 had 31,956 beneficiaries, the Ghana Apprenticeship Programme also has 10,708 beneficiaries so far. The project targets to train a minimum of 20,000 beneficiaries by the end of December 2025.
The Ghana Apprenticeship Programme (GAP) emerges as a transformative initiative with funding from the Government of Ghana, the World Bank and the German Government through KFW Development Bank. This comprehensive programme, endeavours to support Competency-Based Training (CBT) apprenticeship for a total of about 50,000 individuals throughout the implementation period. The primary goal of GAP is to be the umbrella program that provide apprenticeship training tailored to the demands of contemporary jobs, fostering a bridge between traditional apprenticeship systems and modern employment requirements.
Dr. Asamoah further indicated that, the investmentments in TVET which is hovering around GHC 6 billion in Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) infrastructure and equipment, as well as several hundreds of millions of cedis in Free TVET, has led to a massive jump in enrollment TVET from less than 60,000 in 2016 to over 157,000 in 2023 which happens to be the largest investment in TVET by any Government since independence.