by
Osei Boeh-Ocansey
University of Ghana
Legon-Accra, Ghana
Acronyms and abbreviations
Organisations and institutions contacted/visited
1. Introduction
2. Basic education
3. Secondary education
4. Education and training for income generation and survival
5. Post-secondary education, micro-enterprise development and the informal sector
6. Training for informal sector practitioners engaged in viable activities
7. Induction programmes for formal sector employees towards informal and SME sector: The EMPRETEC approach
8. Conclusions
References
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AGI |
Association of Ghana Industries |
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CIDA |
Canadian International Development Agency |
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EDF |
European Development Fund |
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EDII |
Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India |
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GATE/GTZ |
German Appropriate Technology Exchange |
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GATT |
General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs |
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GDP |
Gross Domestic Product |
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GEPC |
Ghana Export Promotion Council |
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GRATIS |
Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Service |
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IAN |
Institute of Adult Education |
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ILO |
International Labour Organization |
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IMP |
International Monetary Fund |
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ITC |
International Trade Centre |
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ITDG |
Intermediate Technology Development Group |
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ITTU |
Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit |
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JSS |
Junior Secondary School |
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MDPI |
Management Development and Productivity Institute |
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NACVET |
National Coordinating Committee for Technical and Vocational Education and Training |
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NBSSI |
National Board for Small Scale Industries |
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NCWD |
National Council on Women and Development |
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NFED |
Non-Formal Education Division |
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NGO |
Non Governmental Organization |
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NSS |
National Service Secretariat, Accra |
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PEA |
People's Educational Association |
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SAP |
Structural Adjustment Programme |
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SME |
Small and Micro-Enterprises |
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SNV |
Netherlands Development Organization |
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SSS |
Senior Secondary School |
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TCC |
Technology Consultancy Centre, University of Science and Technology, Kumasi |
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UNCTAD |
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development |
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UNDP |
United Nations Development Programme |
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UNIDO |
United Nations Industrial Development Organisation |
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USAID |
United States Agency for International Development |
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UNTCMD |
United Nations Transnational Corporations and Management Division, formerly UN Centre for Transnational Corporations (UNCTC) |
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VSO |
British Voluntary Service Overseas |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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1. |
Accra Technical Training Institute, Accra: J Budu-Smith |
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2. |
Accra Girls Secondary School, Accra |
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3. |
Aboma Primary and JSS, Teshie-Accra: Mrs A Amartey |
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4. |
Ada Rural Bank, Kasseh-Ada: F Therson-Cofie |
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5. |
Anfom Machine Shop, Light Industrial Area, Tema |
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6. |
Association of Ghana Industries, Trade Fair Centre, La-Accra: E Imbeah-Amoakuh |
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7. |
Association of Small Scale Industrialists, c/o AGI, La-Accra |
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8. |
Bank of Ghana, Accra, Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises: Ankrah L |
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9. |
Chorkor Fish Smokers Cooperative, Chorkor-Accra |
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10. |
Empretec-Ghana, Accra |
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11. |
Ghana Export Promotion Council, Accra |
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12. |
Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Service, Tema |
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13. |
Ghana Association of Private Voluntary Organisations in Development, Accra: F Owusu |
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14. |
Institute of Adult Education, University of Ghana, Legon |
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15. |
Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit, Tema |
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16. |
Kumasi Technical Institute, Kumasi: Mrs Edna Fordjour |
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17. |
LTB-Schiewer Ghana Ltd., Accra: K Ofori-Bruku |
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18. |
Ministry of Education/Ghana Education Service, Accra |
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19. |
Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare, Accra |
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20. |
Ministry of Trade and Industry, Accra |
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21. |
Management Development and Productivity Institute, Accra |
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22. |
Morning Star Schools (Primary and JSS), Accra |
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23. |
National Investment Bank Training Centre, Accra: Annoh-Wiafe |
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24. |
National Coordinating Committee for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Accra: Prof Abloh |
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25. |
National Board for Small Scale Industries, Accra |
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26. |
Nkulenu Industries Ltd. Madina |
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27. |
NOBOA Foundation, Farmindus Services Project, Pokoase: B Asare-Bediako |
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28. |
National Council on Women and Development, Accra: Mrs R Adotey |
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29. |
Processed Foods and Spices Enterprise, Tema: Mrs Leticia Osafo-Addo |
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30. |
People's Educational Association, c/o Institute of Adult Education, Legon |
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31. |
Statistical Service, Accra |
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32. |
St Theresah's Women's Project, Nuaso, c/o Catholic Church Diocese, Agomenya |
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33. |
Sustainable End of Hunger Foundation (SEHUF), Madina: Dr (Mrs) Esther Ocloo |
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34. |
TechnoServe-Ghana, Accra: Kwasi Poku/Ms M Boateng |
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35. |
TAMS Cassava Processing Enterprise, Oyarifa: Mrs Tamakloe |
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36. |
University of Science and Technology, Kumasi: Dr S K Amenuke |
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37. |
West African Examinations Council, Accra |
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38. |
Wiamo Ventures Mushroom Project, Accra: D Sarpong-Manu |
The Government of Ghana embarked upon a Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1983 with the assistance of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A number of sectoral reforms have been initiated since then, an important feature of which has been to strengthen the private sector. Interventions seeking to orient young people towards self-employment have been made and many workers in government jobs have been redeployed and encouraged by self-employment schemes to seek fortunes in the informal sector.
Attempts have been made to reorganize the basic cycle of regular schooling towards the needs of self-employment in the informal sector. These efforts are discussed in Section 2 of the report.
Similarly, changes have been introduced into the curriculum for post-basic schooling and secondary education. Programmes for secondary educational institutions are reviewed in Section 3.
In Section 4, attention is focused on programmes targeted at youths who might have missed all or part of the basic educational cycle. This report seeks to distinguish between viable activities and the more marginal undertakings of the informal sector. Training programmes for the latter are reviewed in this section. These activities are aimed at income generation; they provide an important supportive system for the survival of beneficiaries.
Post-secondary educational programmes are then discussed in Section 5 in relation to their orientation towards micro-enterprise development and the informal sector.
In Section 6, attention is drawn to specific programmes targeted particularly at informal sector practitioners already identified as active performers in viable projects.
Finally in Section 7, the report discusses programmes which seek to identify and encourage persons already engaged in formal sector employment who show an interest in entering the informal or microenterprise sector.
The types and examples of institutions in Ghana involved in training and their enrolment estimates for the year 1992 are summarized in Tables 1 and 2 for the formal and non-formal educational systems respectively.
Visits were made to government ministries and interviews were held with Directors to obtain information about current policy and available documentation. Information was also gathered about programmes, projects and agencies within each ministry of relevance to education and training activities for the informal sector. Collaborating organizations outside the ministerial structure were also identified. Whenever possible the principal officers in charge of a programme or project or enterprise were contacted directly, interviewed and relevant documents obtained from them. Some on-going projects were also visited and their operations observed. In some instances the views of trainers, trainees, past beneficiaries and other concerned participants were sought.
2.1 Primary school
2.2 Junior secondary school
2.3 General remarks on basic education
The first nine years of schooling constitute the basic educational cycle in Ghana. It consists of six years of primary and three years of junior secondary schooling. In legislation, basic education in Ghana is free, universal and compulsory for all children aged between 6 and 15 years.
Primary education in Ghana is designed to lay foundations for inquiry and creativity in the child and thereby develop in young Ghanaians the ability to adapt constructively to a changing environment. To inculcate a spirit of good citizenship in the child as a basis for effective participation in national development, it is also primary education's role to develop sound moral attitudes in the child accompanied by a healthy appreciation of the child's cultural heritage and self-identity. After attending primary school, the child is expected to be able to read, write and effectively communicate, count and use numbers. It is also hoped that a firm foundation would have been laid for the development of manipulative and life skills to prepare the individual to function to his/her own, and the community's, advantage. To achieve these goals, the following subjects are learnt in primary school: Agriculture, Cultural Studies, English, Ghanaian Languages, Life Skills, Mathematics, Physical Education, Science, and Social Studies (Government of Ghana, 1988a).
In the 1991/92 school year, total enrolment in primary school was 2,001,000 of which 54.3% were male (Ministry of Education, 1993). The enrolment figure represented 64.3% of the population of children aged between 6 and 12 years (Statistical Service, Accra).
The curriculum in junior secondary school (JSS) is designed to expose the pupil to basic pre-technical, pre-vocational and scientific skills and knowledge to enable him/her to discover aptitudes and potentialities that induce in him/her a desire for self-improvement, an understanding of his/her environment and an eagerness to contribute to its survival and development. The curriculum is also specifically designed to emphasise an appreciation of the use of the hand as well as the mind and orientate the pupil towards creative and productive effort.
In addition to the 9 subjects of the primary school curriculum, Technical Drawing, Pre-technical and Pre-vocational Skills as well as French (optional) are taught (Government of Ghana, 1988a). Each school specializes in 2 vocational subjects for which raw materials and expertise are locally available.
Total enrolment in Junior Secondary Schools for the 1991/92 school year was 604,200 of which 58.8% were male. In 1992, 165,000 candidates took the Basic Education Certificate Examinations to graduate from Junior Secondary School (Ministry of Education, 1993).
The total number of children enrolled in Primary and Junior Secondary Schools in Ghana in the 1991/92 school year was 2,605,200 representing 62.9% of the population of children aged between 6 and 15 years. Therefore 37% of children of school-going age in Ghana, the majority of whom are female, do not have access to basic education which has been declared free, universal and compulsory (Ministry of Education, 1993; Statistical Service, 1984). For the purpose of comparisons enrolments in 1960 and 1970 were 40.1% and 58.1% respectively of children of the same age group (Government of Ghana, 1972); in 1984, the enrolment figures peaked at 67.6%.
The types of training institutions in the formal system, their enrolment figures and gender representation for 1992 have been assembled in Table 1 (see annexe).
Progression in the basic educational cycle is based on continuous and guidance-related internal assessment by teachers. However at the end of the ninth year, certification is based on 40% internal and 60% external assessment. Terminal assessment is conducted by the West African Examinations Council. The Basic Education Certificate Examinations provide in general terms, the criteria for selection of students into Senior Secondary schools and other post-basic educational and training institutions.
The educational reforms make tremendous demands on teachers. Teacher education has therefore been reorientated to concentrate more on imparting skills rather than purely academic knowledge. Provision was therefore made for continuous in-service training for practicing teachers. By 1992,133,397 Primary and 51,794 Junior Secondary school teachers had been trained in the content and methodology of Mathematics, Science, Technical, Vocational and Life Skills and in Continuous Assessment. Heads of schools were also trained in school administration.
But, in general, the number of trained teachers is inadequate to handle all the subjects, particularly the technical and vocational subjects. Tools and equipment for workshop practice are also not enough for the use of all children in a workshop at a time. Furthermore, facilities are not equitably available countrywide. For example, even though about 70% of the population resides in rural districts, trained teachers are reluctant to accept postings to these areas. Many schools in the rural districts do not have well-built classrooms with adequately secured stores for keeping books, equipment and other valuable property; they also lack workshops of standard design and furniture (Ghana Education Service, 1993, personal communication).
However, siting of Junior Secondary Schools has been planned so that children do not have to travel more than 5 kilometres, on average, to get to one, in order to minimise the fall-out rate from Primary to Junior Secondary School. To ensure quality instruction, inspection and supervision of schools is undertaken at district level under the management of a Director of the Ghana Education Service.
3.1 Senior secondary school
3.2 Vocational and technical education and training
The post-basic educational cycle or secondary education in Ghana follows 2 general directions: Senior Secondary Schooling or Vocational and Technical Education and Training.
Only 30% of graduates of Junior Secondary School are admitted, by merit, into Senior Secondary Schools. The remaining candidates have to choose from a number of programmes offered in Vocational and Technical schools.
Senior secondary education in Ghana seeks to reinforce the skills and knowledge acquired during the years of basic education, to develop in the students a quest for further self-improvement, and also to equip them with qualities of responsible leadership for the promotion and development of all areas of national endeavour (Government of Ghana, 1988b).
The curriculum for Senior Secondary School (SSS) is diversified to cater for varying talents and skills relevant to the country's manpower requirements for socio-economic development. A core curriculum is compulsory for all students, after which choices may be made among 5 specialized programmes, Each school may offer 2 or more of the specialized programmes, each of which is composed of 2 or more options. Every student is required to select one option, and each option consists of a package of 3 subjects.
The core curriculum is made up of the following 7 subjects:
English Language
Ghanaian Language
Science
Mathematics
Agricultural and Environmental Studies
Life Skills
Physical Education
and the 5 specialized programmes are:
Agriculture
Business
Technical
Vocational
General (Arts or Science)
Under the Agriculture Programme the options are:
(1)General Agriculture, made up of Soil Science, Crop Science, Animal Science and
Farm Management
Farm Mechanization
Horticulture(2)
General Agriculture (as above)
Agriculture Economics and Extension
Horticulture
The Business Programme also has 2 options, Accounting and Secretarial:
(1)The Accounting option comprises:
Introduction to Business Management
Accounting
Business Mathematics and Costing
Clerical and Office Duties(2)
The Secretarial option also comprises:
Introduction to Business Management
Typing (40 words per minute)
Clerical and Office Duties
Under the Technical Programme there are 4 options: (1) Building, (2) Metal Work, (3) Auto Mechanics and (4) Applied Electricity. All the first three options offer Technical Drawing and Engineering Science. In addition, Building Option offers Building Construction and Woodwork; Metalwork Option offers Metalwork and Woodwork while Auto Mechanics Option offers Auto Mechanics and Metalwork. For the last option in Applied Electricity, the subjects offered are Physics, Mathematics and Applied Electricity or Electronics.
The Vocational Programme is made up of 3 options in Home Economics and one in Visual Arts. Management-in-Living Studies are offered under all 3 Home Economics options and the student is required to select 2 subjects from (a) Clothing and Textiles, (b) Food and Nutrition and (c) General Art, to complete the option.
Under the Visual Arts Option, General Art (comprising History, Appreciation and General Concepts of Art) is offered together with a selection, depending upon the availability of facilities, from the following subjects: basketry, leatherwork, graphic design, picture making, pottery, sculpture and textiles.
The General Programme in Arts offers 9 options made up of a restricted selection of a set of 3 subject combinations from the following:
English Language
Literature in English
French
Ghanaian Languages
Economics
Geography
History
Government
Christian or Islamic Religions Studies
Music
Mathematics
Finally the General Programme in Science offers 4 options from any set of 3 subject combinations selected from: Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics.
All subjects are examinable internally and externally except Physical Education which is examined only internally. The Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations provide the principal entry into formal employment and Tertiary Education. Total enrolment in Senior Secondary Schools in 1992 was 225,300, a third of which was female (Ministry of Education 1993). After 3 years of schooling, 55,000 candidates registered for the Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations in 1993. For these graduands, places are available for only 27.3% in post-secondary educational institutions. The universities can take a maximum of 5000 students, and the polytechnics and other specialized colleges a further 10,000. Thus 40,000 or 72.7% of senior secondary school graduates will join the world of work in 1993 and their most probable destination is the informal sector.
In 1990 when the reforms in secondary education started, there were only 264 senior secondary schools. By 1993, 170 more schools had been added, first by absorbing and upgrading 140 existing community schools and then by creating 30 entirely new ones.
The main problems encountered in the administration of basic education in Ghana also persist in secondary education. Nevertheless, efforts have been made, with the assistance of the World Bank and other donors, to supply textbooks, science equipment and agricultural and technical tools to most schools and provide them with laboratories, libraries and workshops. 43 textbook titles were commissioned of which 27 have been successfully printed and delivered. Distance education techniques are also being applied to address the shortage of teachers in particular subjects. For example, series of courses in science and mathematics and English literature aids are screened on national television to supplement classroom work. Finally, to attract and retain teachers especially in rural districts, it is now established policy to provide fitting accommodation for school staff. As a result, since the reforms started, accommodation has been provided for the heads of 150 of the newly established senior secondary schools (Ghana Education Service, 1993, personal communication).
In May 1994, the results of the first batch of Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (SSCE) were published. Out of the 55,000 registered candidates, only 76.6% of them (42,105) finally took the examinations (Ghana Press Reports 1994).
21% of those who took the examinations had no pass at all while 18.6% of them recorded passes in six or more subjects. 1656 candidates passed in the prescribed nine subjects and out of this number, only 68% (1,130) qualified to participate in University Entrance Examinations (WEE) to fill 5,000 places in the country's universities. Thus only 2.7% of SSCE candidates, or about 2% of SSS graduands could be considered for university education.
By ministerial fiat, the entrance examinations (WEE) were suspended; the number of core subjects to be presented at the SSCE was also reduced from a minimum of six to five, and the study of Ghanaian Languages made optional. A ministerial report to parliament however expected better performance from subsequent batches of students as, according to the Minister of Education, "most of the initial teething problems have been solved". (Compiled from Ghana Press Reports 1994).
Vocational education, in general, prepares skilled persons at lower levels of qualification for particular jobs, trades or occupations. It usually covers general education, practical training and related theory in varying concentrations but, more often, emphasis is placed on practical training.
Technical education, on the other hand, is designed to prepare technicians and middle-level management personnel in secondary educational institutions. However in tertiary institutions, technical education leads to the production of engineers and technologists for higher management positions. Technical education encompasses general education, scientific and technical studies and their related theory, and training in specific skills. The type of personnel being produced and the educational level of training determine the relative amounts of emphasis and areas of concentration.
The objectives of vocational and technical education in Ghana are to produce operatives, artisans, craftsmen, technicians and other middle-level personnel with the skills and knowledge required for the country's agricultural, industrial, commercial and economic development. Of particular importance in vocational and technical education is the emphasis laid on equipping the individual with entrepreneurial skills for self-employment to enable the trainee to adapt easily to changing economic and occupational situations. Vocational and technical education in Ghana provides learning and training opportunities in the informal sector and encourages female participation in apprenticeable jobs and occupations which are traditionally not practiced by women. Special programmes are also designed for physically handicapped and disabled persons (Government of Ghana, 1 990a).
There are basically 3 different types of training, for which programmes of varying duration and specialization are offered as follows:
(1) Vocational TrainingThis programme requires a minimum period of 2 years after which the Trade Testing Certificate Grade 2 is awarded. One further year of training leads to the Trade Testing Certificate Grade 1. The National Craftsman's Certificate is awarded after completing the maximum training period of 4 years.(2) Technical Training
The duration of this programme is 3 years leading to the award of the Intermediate City and Guilds Certificate of London. The completion of an additional year would earn the trainee the Advanced City and Guilds Certificate.(3) Integrated Community Centre for Employable Skills
The third type of vocational and technical education is given at an Integrated Community Centre for Employable Skills (ICCES) where trainees are equipped with indigenous skills of more importance to activities in the income generation range. Each trainee is apprenticed to a master craftsman of good standing for 2 years in the trainee's district of residence. The apprenticeship is certificated. A third year of mainly theoretical orientation may be pursued at a Vocational or Technical Institute involved in the first and second type of training, as explained above, to improve upon the trainee's understanding and mastery of the craft or trade.
Trainees from the Vocational and Technical programmes who wish to re-enter Senior Secondary School are admissible after completing prescribed courses. But then completing the Advanced Courses successfully ultimately qualifies the trainee for entry into tertiary education particularly in the Polytechnics and Specialist Teacher Training Colleges (Government of Ghana, 1990a, 1991).
Skills training programmes in Vocational and Technical educational institutions include (NACVET, 1 993a):
(1) Business StudiesThis programme offers specializations in (a) Secretaryship (b) Computer Applications and (c) Accountancy.(2) Home Management
The specializations under this programme are in (a) Catering or (b) Cookery.(3) Automobile Engineering and Mechanical Craft
(4) Welding and Fabrication
(5) Building Trades
This programme offers specializations in (a) Carpentry and Joinery (b) Masonry (c) Plumbing and (d) Painting and Decorating.(6) Arts and Craft
The specializations under this programme include (a) Sculpture (carving) (b) Ceramics (c) Weaving (Straw, Bamboo, Raffia, Cane, etc) (d) Textiles (e) Leatherwork (f) Painting (Graphics) (g) Interior Decoration.(7) Electrical and Electronics
The following specializations are offered under this programme: (a) Telecommunications (b) Radio and Television Repairs (c) Electrical Installation (d) Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration.(8) Agriculture
(9) Agricultural Mechanics
Including Foundrycraft and Blacksmithing.
Officially there are 156 vocational and technical training institutions in Ghana administered by different government agencies and 250 private-sector institutions registered and recognized by government. In addition, about 700 unregistered private-sector vocational and technical training institutions exist and a considerable amount of training is known to be provided through informal apprenticeship schemes (NACVET, 1993b).
In contrast to institutions in the basic educational cycle and senior secondary where 91.7% and over 95% enrolment are in government schools respectively, in vocational and technical education enrolment in informal sector institutions, comprising registered and unregistered private-sector schools, constitutes 59.5% of a total estimated national enrolment of 42,000 in 1992.
Vocational and technical education and training in Ghana is fraught with many difficulties. The government institutions have a fair share of the frustration, but in the informal sector the problems are legion. A critical observation reveals the common use of inappropriate tools, equipment and training materials, poor infrastructure and other physical facilities, poor remuneration for staff and the use of untrained instructors.
Most private training institutions offer their own internal certificates but encourage and prepare their trainees for nationally-recognized certificates offered by the National Vocational Training Institute and the City and Guilds of London. In 1992, only 9.7% of a total national enrolment of 17,800 trainees in government institutions were female.
Recently, a National Coordinating Committee for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NACVET) was established for the coordination and management of vocational and technical training in the country. NACVET operates through two agencies, namely the National Institute of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NITVET) and the National Technical and Vocational Examinations Board (NATVEB).
Basic education eludes 37% of children in Ghana of school-going age. From a 1992 population projection of 1,533,300 children aged from 6 to 15 years of age the number of out of school children is above 567,300. In Primary School, female enrolment was 45.7% in 1992, while in Junior Secondary School it fell to 41.2%. The total number of females as a percentage of total number of children outside the educational system increased from 54.3% at age 12 to 58.8% at 15 years of age.
At graduation, only 30% of Junior Secondary School leavers have access to Senior Secondary education. On average, there were about 201,400 students in each year of Junior Secondary School but only 165,000 graduated from the third year in 1992. In Senior Secondary School, average enrolment per year was less than 75,400 and only 33% of them were female. Of the total number of students who did not enter Senior Secondary School in 1992, 42.5% were admitted into Vocational and Technical schools. However, only 9.7% of the total enrolment of trainees in government Vocational and Technical schools were female. In Ghana therefore, a large majority of children and youth who missed or dropped out of basic and secondary education are female; they are the principal constituents of the informal sector. Many income generating programmes therefore focus attention on women's activities.
The Institute of Adult Education of the University of Ghana has a network of 13 stations serving all the regions where basic literacy programmes and other courses are run all over the country. The Non-Formal Education Division (NFED) of the Ministry of Education is also executing many projects in basic literacy and income generating activities all over the country. Many government departments have similar programmes in their areas of ministerial responsibility. The Ministry of Agriculture, for example, trains illiterate farmers and fishermen through an intricate extension network and the Ministry of Health also trains Traditional Birth Attendants who are largely illiterate.
However, for the more marginal levels of the informal sector, the Department of Social Welfare of the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare organizes programmes and oversees projects involving vocational training and skills development for the rehabilitation of disadvantaged women, youth and people with physical disabilities (Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare, 1993, personal communication).
Vocational Institutes for women, under the Department of Social Welfare alone, number 50 countrywide and enrol about 2000 trainees. There are also 9 Remand and Probation Homes for boys, located one per region, which are also Vocational Institutes. In addition, there are 3 other Vocational Institutes for both boys and girls where the female enrolment is about a third of the total intake of about 300.
Rehabilitation Centres which provide skills training for persons with physical disabilities number nine countrywide. These vocational institutes are currently operating at less than 50% capacity because of inadequate financial support. The number of trainees in the Rehabilitation Centres was 246 in 1992, 25% of them illiterate. However, the type of trainees admitted ranges from those who did not attend even a year of Primary School to Junior Secondary School graduates. Training is given in trades including the following:
Shoemaking, Basketry and Ropework, Tailoring, Dressmaking, Hairdressing, Cookery and Catering, Carpentry, Leather Bag Making, Agriculture, Tie-Dye Batik, Home Management.
Proficiency certificates are awarded by the Department of Social Welfare. Opportunities exist for pursuing further training at more advanced levels leading to the award of certificates by the National Vocational Training Institute.
The Department of Social Welfare is also the implementing agency for many special projects sponsored by donors such as UNDP, ILO and many international NGOs. One such income generating project for rural women in all 10 regions of Ghana emphasized technology transfer, capitalization and training for groups of 30-50 members in activities such as gari (cassava) processing, vegetable oil extraction, cotton spinning, bead-making, indigenous soap production. Young women dependents of adult participants in the project were also assisted to undergo skills training at selected focal centres such as the Mancell Vocational School in Kumasi. In the 1991/92 school year alone, 120 young women selected from groups from all over the country benefited from this project (Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare, 1993, personal communication).
Finally, because income generating activities usually involve women, most agencies operating in this area collaborate with the National Council on Women and Development (NCWD) in the implementation of projects.
Let us throw some more light on the IAE and NFED programmes (information provided by the Ministry of Education, Accra).
Institute of Adult Education (IAE)
The Institute of Adult Education (IAE) was founded in 1948 and has been active in providing both formal and non-formal educational programmes. It is famous for its annual New Year and Easter Schools which address topical civic and political issues.
Through a chain of Workers' Colleges nationwide, the formal educational programmes assist out-of-school youths and adults to prepare mainly for the General Certificate of Education (GCE) at ordinary and advanced levels on a part-time basis. There are also programmes for secretarial and accounting studies. In the 1992/1993 school year 6151 participants were registered for the various courses and 128 of them were being prepared for admission to the University of Ghana. The total number of IAE graduates already engaged in University programmes during the year was 27. More than 50% of the participants in the formal educational programmes were registered in Accra, the capital city.
The non-formal educational programmes cover courses in health, family life, population, environmental and community-related subjects. The programmes have been concerned with: integrated rural development; organizing and strengthening women's groups; transfer of improved technologies; leadership training and fostering community action. Specific projects have involved the establishment of experimental farms, community newspapers and income generating activities in: beekeeping, piggery, seed-yam production, snail rearing, cassava processing, farm cropping, vegetable production and marketing, sheanut processing, bakery, calabash work, poultry, tree planting, adult literacy campaigns, community libraries and the setting up of centres for trade skills and newsletters. The non-formal educational programmes are very diversified and range from ONE-DAY Schools to courses of a few weeks' duration. Over 5800 persons participated in these activities which were organized in regional centres and rural districts.
The Institute of Adult Education has received support from the Canadian Organization for Development through Education (CODE), German Adult Education Association (DVV), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).
The Institute collaborates with, and gives institutional support to, a number of organizations including the:
· People's Educational Association (PEA)
· Non-Formal Education Division of the Ministry of Education (NFED)
· Department of Community Development and Department of Social Welfare of the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare (IAE, 1993, personal communication).
Non-Formal Education Division (NFED)
The main aim of non-formal education programmes in Ghana is to reduce adult illiteracy rates. The programmes therefore provide a substitute for regular full-time schooling and a second chance for all those who missed out initially. They provide popular education which focuses on the poor. Training is here adapted to the needs of the user.
Other programmes prepare trainees for wage employment or self-employment while others specialize in upgrading the knowledge and skills of those already employed.
A division was created in the Ministry of Education to coordinate the activities of all agencies involved in nonformal education programmes in the country with a view to revitalizing the infrastructure and providing materials, teaching aids, training of facilitators, distance learning and self-employment opportunities countrywide. The Non-Formal Education Division (NFED) of the ministry oversees Integrated Community Centres for Employable Skills (ICCES) where urban and rural community cottage-based industries are made available for training. These centres, in the long run, are expected to become community-based small-scale commercial ventures which generate economic activity around the most marketable local trade skills. Planning and development of training programmes are expected to involve, at all stages, the clients and users of the skills namely, women, villagers, farmers' cooperatives, etc. Other subjects which are taught at the centres include: Family Life Education, Maternal and Child Care, Drug Abuse, and the Rights and Responsibilities of the youth to their communities.
A reorganisation of NFED is underway to transfer some of these activities to the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare.
The National Youth Organizing Commission (NYOC) of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and the Opportunities Industrialisation Centre (OIC), an international, private, not-for-profit organisation, are also institutions which run training programmes similar to the vocational programmes of NFED.
Post-secondary education in Ghana is almost entirely dependent on Government. In fact, some reviews on tertiary education, particularly its impact on Ghanaian society and national development, have openly criticized the orientation of training, course content and even the basic institutional framework of the organizations concerned (Government of Ghana, 1990b, Boeh-Ocansey, 1989).
Access to university education is acutely restricted and skewed against science and technology related disciplines. For a population of about 15 million, total enrolment in all Ghanaian universities was less than 10,000 in 1991/92 and only 19% of the students were female. The total student population of all other post-secondary educational institutions, including specialized colleges and polytechnics, was less than 26,100 for the same period (Table 1) (Ministry of Education, 1993). Yet, there is evidence of stagnation and low morale among staff, lack of equipment and essential teaching materials, and under-utilization of available resources and facilities. In addition, graduate unemployment is increasing.
Government proposals for the restructuring and reorganization of post-secondary education seek to provide greater access to all students, and in particular increase the proportion of female students while achieving a better balance in enrolments between science, technology, social sciences, humanities and the arts in relation to national needs. The proposals further seek to increase funding for post-secondary education by augmenting the capacity of the institutions themselves towards generating income and encouraging greater financial support from the private sector. Programmes and courses in post-secondary educational institutions are also to be redirected towards the essential training needs of working people.
Post-secondary education in Ghana, to conclude, has, in general terms, very weak linkages with microenterprise development, self-employment schemes and the informal sector. However, many beneficiaries of post-secondary education, particularly those with family histories in particular trades, engage in informal sector activities, albeit in the more viable ventures, as a means to supplement income from formal employment.
The reason for these weak linkages is obvious. Post-secondary education in the emerging nation-state of Ghana was not originally designed to fulfill self-employment objectives, but rather to supply a certain calibre of manpower to fill prescribed positions in the public service. Later, a few private companies in the country, mostly subsidiaries of foreign firms or local branches of multinational corporations, converted some of the products of this educational system to their use through in-service training.
Therefore, until a few decades ago, post-secondary education in Ghana doubtlessly availed its beneficiaries with opportunities of employment in the formal economy with prospects of demonstrated satisfactory standards of living, job security, pension and a good social standing. In effect, post-secondary education had become a reliable vehicle of escape from the trap of rural life for many, and an emancipation from endemic communal poverty.
Formal education progressively refined the social behaviour of its beneficiaries and converted them, more or less, into rule-conscious individuals. In addition, the specialization associated with higher education further narrowed the apparent effectiveness of the individual's contribution in the larger traditional community.
The informal sector is a relatively unstructured system where success is highly selective and may be due more to the nature and conduct of business than to predictable or verifiable factors. The challenge of survival, in itself, does not encourage operators in the system to respect and apply rules and regulations consistently.
Products of post-secondary education are therefore ill-equipped to operate in such a system. The transformation they have undergone inevitably reduces their capability to take risks in the contemporary chaotic environment. A few cases of microenterprise development and self-employment have however been recorded among members of this group but these have been limited more or less to the professions where the element of risk has been considerably reduced and the subject of survival is hardly considered a threat.
6.1 Management development and productivity institute
6.2 National board for small scale industries
6.3 Ghana regional appropriate technology industrial service
6.4 GEPC export training school
6.5 Non-governmental organizations
6.6 Trade associations
A number of institutions located outside the formal educational system provide training programmes from which informal sector practitioners benefit. These services are provided selectively depending on areas of specialization and client needs by several governmental and non-governmental organizations. Five different examples are cited to cover the types of institutions involved and the range of services provided.
This institute, MDPI for short, was established by the government of Ghana to fulfill the following objectives
(a) to improve and develop the standard of management in all aspects and at all levels of national life,(b) to introduce suitable management practices and techniques and
(c) to promote increased efficiency and productivity in industry, commerce and other sectors of the economy.
MDPI organizes regular and in-plant courses for personnel from both public and private sector organizations. In addition, a number of project-related management training programmes are offered, for example for the World Bank/Ghana Government Transport Rehabilitation Project, the ILO/Dutch Ghana Government project on improving the construction business and the UNDP/ITC/Swiss/Ghana Government project on the management of import trade.
Established in 1967, MDPI is the oldest and the best known training institution for small business management and entrepreneurship promotion. Its Private Sector Development programmes are targeted at school graduates, redeployed and retired personnel from formal employment desirous of establishing their own businesses, and practicing owner-managers of small enterprises. In-plant training programmes are also mounted on special request to satisfy peculiar client needs.
Every year about 2000 persons are trained at the MDPI and 30% of these come from the informal sector. In 1992, about 62% of trainees participated in project-related programmes, 25% attended regular courses and 13% were involved in in-plant training workshops (MDPI, 1993, personal communication).
This organization, NBSSI for short, was established by the Government of Ghana with World Bank assistance. Its task was to promote industrialization in the country through small scale operations initiated and implemented via Entrepreneurship Development Programmes. The programmes are executed by Business Advisory Centres located in regional capitals throughout the country whose main activities include training, counselling and the provision of support services for small enterprises.
The specific objectives of establishing NBSSI are to (a) increase the supply of entrepreneurs especially in economic areas and geographical regions where industrial activity is sluggish, (b) diversify sources of entrepreneurship in order to generate a wider base of ownership for small businesses and industries, (c) provide productive self-employment opportunities to a wider variety of educated and uneducated rural and urban youth, technical and non-technical personnel, artisans, craftsmen, redeployed or retired persons from formal employment and the general public, and (d) improve the human resource quality of entrepreneurship in general in order to achieve continually increasing levels of performance in the operations of enterprises (ED11, 1987).
Five training sessions were held in 1990. For the southern zone 3 sessions were held in Accra, and for the northern zone 2 training sessions were held in Kumasi. After extensive advertising on national networks of radio, television and the print media (newspapers), 1282 individuals expressed interest in participating in the entrepreneurship training programmes by requesting application forms. 955 formal applications were received representing 75% of the number of application forms requested.
In all, 144 candidates were admitted for a short, intensive and comprehensive training programme in general management skills of 4 to 8 weeks' duration. 140 trainees completed the course successfully.
In a post-training evaluation, 82% of a selected sample of participants expressed satisfaction with the training programme and rated it highly, while 14% reported that it had had only a marginal impact on the attainment of their goals six months after the course had been completed. 104 trainees had gone through the formalities leading to the registration of their own firms, of whom 94 had gone as far as to prepare business plans. These represented, respectively, 75% and 68% of the total number of graduates. Especially remarkable was the observation that 53 ax-trainees, or 38% of the group, had submitted applications to financial institutions for loans within the same period.
Finally, apart from 12 trainees who were already engaged in running their own businesses at the time of training, 17 other participants had managed to commence commercial operations in their new businesses.
The ex-trainees reported that the most useful aspects of the training programme were the courses in achievement motivation, self-confidence generation and planning (Dave 1990).
This service, referred to commonly as the GRATIS Project, was instituted by the Government of Ghana with donor assistance 1 to promote indigenous industrialization throughout the country. It operates through a network of regional Intermediate Technology Transfer Units (ITTU). By the end of the year 1992, six regional centres had fully operational ITTUs while work was going on towards their establishment in the remaining four regions. An ITTU constitutes a group of production workshops where novel products and processes of industrial relevance to the catchment area are demonstrated. Local craftsmen and entrepreneurs are then encouraged and assisted to take up the manufacture of such products. A local interest group is formed and nurtured to grow, in the long term, into a viable trade association which could elect from its membership a Management Board to be responsible for the ITTU, which by this time is expected to be a regionally autonomous and self-financing institution.
1 The GRATIS Project has benefited variously from the support of bilateral, multilateral and foreign non-governmental organizations including CIDA, EDF, GATE/GTZ, ITDG, VSO, SNV; the local benefactors include NSS and TCC.
An ITTU provides information and advice on technical, commercial and economic matters as well as on-the job training in both technical and administrative skills to artisans and small scale industrialists in activities pertaining to metal machining, plant construction, ferrous and non-ferrous casting, auto-engineering, woodworking and pattern making. It also liaises with local educational and research institutions and offers extension services to rural and women's industries active in non-engineering income generating activities such as food processing and preservation, beekeeping, textiles and pottery.
Selected master craftsmen or apprentices may spend a period of practical on-the-job training at an ITTU. Master craftsmen are offered short-term stays as visiting apprentices for periods ranging from a few weeks to a few months to learn new skills. Students from Universities, Polytechnics, Vocational and Technical Institutes are also admitted as visiting apprentices during vacation.
The ITTU organizes another apprenticeship scheme of longer duration for trainees who might have served periods of apprenticeship in an informal sector workshop, to acquire particular skills which they missed either because the master himself lacked them or because the necessary equipment was not available. These apprentices are engaged on one-year renewable contracts.
On average, 5 master craftsmen and 25 apprentices are trained at each ITTU in one year thereby generating at least 30 potential employment or self-employment opportunities in the informal sector every year per ITTU (Powell, 1986).
In 1991, the earned income from the operations of 5 ITTUs varied from 38.7% to 73.7% of the total funding received by each. Most of the income was derived from machine shop operations and plant construction. At the lower end of the income range were two ITTUs which had had less than two years' existence. Having been established only in August and December 1990, their earned incomes were respectively 38.7% (Ho, Volta Region) and 43.8% (Sunyani, Brong Ahafo Region) of total investment. The others, established earlier in 1988, performed better, each yielding 58.8% (Tamale, Northern Region), 59.1% (Cape Coast, Central Region) and 73.7% (Tema, Greater Accra Region) (GRATIS, 1991).
To investigate the impact of ITTU training on the lives of beneficiaries, a survey was conducted on ax-trainees of the Textile Dyeing Section of Tema ITTU (Moses, 1992).
The six-month training programme introduced participants to small scale textile dyeing using batik printing and tie-dye techniques. It was directed at young women desirous of operating their own workshops to help them improve upon their standards of living and that of their (future) employees.
In all 40 people have been trained since the establishment of the programme in 1988, and only 6 of them (15%) have been male. All the trainees had had formal education: 33.3% of them had benefited from post-secondary education, 40% had graduated from vocational and other secondary educational institutions and 26.7% had had basic education.
An analysis of the age distribution of participants showed that 60% were young people aged between 15 and 29 years, 26% were aged 30-44 years and the remaining 14% were aged 45-60 years.
Young people who had only recently graduated from school and were unemployed constituted 33.3% of the total intake. Next were dressmakers, hairdressers, petty traders, subsistence farmers and fisherfolk who desired additional skills to enable them to supplement income emanating from their primary occupational activities. These occupational groupings represented respectively 13.3%, 6.7%, 6.7%, 6.7%, and 3.3% of participants. Collectively, the factor of income supplementation becomes an important consideration as 36.7% of participants were motivated by it.
Combining the above socio-economic groups reveals that 70% of the trainees in work came from the informal sector. The remaining 30% were employed in the formal sector as teachers (20%), prisons officers (6.7%) and cashiers (3.3%).
Very valuable insights may be obtained from the following statistics which were obtained in 1992 from 30 ax-trainee respondents representing 75% of the population of participants in the above ITTU training programme (Moses, 1992): only 6.7% of ax-trainees were productively engaged in business after their training; 33.3% of them had not been involved in any productive self-employment nor found employment; 50% of ax-trainees had managed to purchase capital equipment but lacked working capital to commence commercial operations; 26.7% of members of this group who obtained loans from friends and relations to start production eventually had to abandon operations because they encountered immense problems in marketing their products.
Conclusively, the survey demonstrated that the desired impact of training on the lives of participants had not been attained. The appearance of new constraints relating to the availability of investment capital and product marketing challenges frustrated the achievement of the project objectives. Post-training support to practicing and potential entrepreneurs is important if the objectives of training programmes are to be realized.
One of the principal objectives of Ghana's Structural Adjustment Programme is to promote substantial growth in the export sector and enhance earnings through the development, diversification and promotion of non-traditional export products (traditional exports being, for example, cocoa, gold, diamonds and timber). The Government of Ghana, assisted by the UNDP through its executing agency ITC/UNCTAD/GATT, initiated an Export Trade Planning and Promotion Project to enhance the national institutional capacity and improve the country's capability to support the development and diversification of export products including the establishment of pioneering projects and rural-based export production villages. By implication, the project involved working on many undeveloped components of the informal sector. The Ghana Export Promotion Council (GEPC) was charged with the responsibility of implementing the project.
The project had envisaged the establishment of a self-sustaining training facility for export-orientated trading enterprises and government agencies. Thus in 1989 an Export Training School was established to coordinate the relevant training policies and activities and also serve as a focal point for the collation and exchange of information (Cellich and Alwoi, 1992).
In 1991, 2822 exporters in Ghana traded in 155 products valued at US$62.551 million. The agricultural sub-sector contributed 54.24% of total exports through 55 products handled by 1217 exporting firms. The products included fish and seafood, and horticultural products such as pineapples, bananas, plantains, fresh vegetables, cocoa waste, kolanuts, cottonseed and maize (corn).
The group of processed and semi-processed products contributed 44.35% of total earnings through 86 products by 1412 exporters. The main items included wood and aluminium products, processed natural rubber, common salt, non-ferrous metal scrap, tobacco, toilet soap, matches and gari.
Handicrafts contributed the difference of 1.41% through the export of 10 products by 193 agents. The items included kente and straw products, imitation jewellery, earthenware bowls, batik and tie-dye dresses and assorted items.
In 1990, the number of firms recorded for participating in non-traditional export trade was 1357. However, only 21.51% of them exported annual shipments of a value exceeding US$5,000. In fact, 47.75% of exporting firms actually traded in goods worth US$1000 or less for the whole year, thus providing overwhelming evidence that the informal sector dominates non-traditional export trade. By April 1992, the Export Training School had trained over 1000 persons, 20% of whom were female.
The intervention of the Training School in export trade activities increased the number of exporting firms in Ghana by 108% over 1990 figures at the end of 1991 but the increase in the corresponding value of shipments was only US$209,000. Personnel in Export Support Service Organizations blamed the level of illiteracy among Ghanaian exporters as a major obstacle to growth in the sector (GEPC, 1992a, 1992b; 1993 personal communication).
Ghana has a large NGO community, active in all sectors and at all levels of the country's socio-economic development. The activities of individual local, national and international NGOs in the country are coordinated at the national level by the Ghana Association of Private Voluntary Organizations in Development (GAPVOD). Training is a major activity of many NGOs. They are involved in non-formal educational and literacy programmes in local communities, vocational and technical training, technology transfer, small enterprise development schemes, management training and counselling, funding and technical assistance for specific projects, etc. They usually collaborate with other agencies in executing projects. They maintain an unrivalled presence in the informal sector.
Ninety-three NGOs are currently listed on the GAPVOD register. Let us review the programmes of only two of them.
People's Educational Association
The association, PEA for short, is a voluntary, democratic, non-sectarian, non-partisan, national organisation for the promotion of adult and non-formal education. Founded in 1949, it has over the years been an important partner of the Institute of Adult Education of the University of Ghana.
The central policy making bodies of the association are the National Executive Committee which is elected every two years and the Annual Conference at which delegates from local and regional branches as well as affiliated organisations represent the entire membership of the association. These two organs direct and coordinate the activities of the association throughout the country. Unit branches are established in towns, suburbs, villages, workplaces or in Workers' Colleges by persons interested in working for the association's ideals, upon payment of annual membership fees. The major responsibility of each Branch Committee, elected annually by branch members of good standing, is to stimulate and organise the educational and training needs of adults in the local community, as well as motivate community actions. The association seeks to provide opportunities for life-long education and training for its members who have had formal education and to organize programmes for the rest to acquire literacy and manual skills. To develop informed and active citizens who will participate fully in the process of national development, the PEA encourages its members to undertake social and community action programmes.
The following are examples of activities undertaken by PEA branches with the assistance of personnel from the Institute of Adult Education in the regions:
· Extramural courses in Liberal Studies to gain a good understanding of the complexities of a particular subject, topic or problem without any examination.· Examination courses in general education (ordinary and advanced certificates), and professional qualification courses in Secretarial and Accountancy Studies.
· Survey projects on local problems such as unemployment among school leavers, the plight of illiterate adults, problems of malnutrition, the incidence and control of AIDS, etc.
· Research projects into local history, cultural practices or institutions of interest, etc.
· Literacy programmes, community leadership training and activities for special groups such as women, young school leavers, etc.
· Training for special groups for the acquisition of specific skills; technology transfer.
· Visits to places of interest and educational tours, recreational activities including sports, games, musical concerts and theatre, etc.
· Organisation of public lectures, symposia, debates, conferences on topical issues, etc. (PEA National Secretariat, 1993, personal communication).
Many members from PEA branches all over the country have risen, as a result of these activities, to national pre-eminence in government, politics, judicial and public service.
TechnoServe-Ghana
TechnoServe is a private, non-profit, nonsectarian international agency which started operations in Ghana in 1971. Its mission is to improve the economic and social well-being of low-income, rural families through training and transfer of practical skills to enable such people to work profitably and build organizations so as to earn more income for themselves. TechnoServe achieves these objectives by fostering the establishment and growth of small and medium-scale community-based agricultural enterprises.
The focus of this agency's activities in Ghana is on edible oils and cereals. TechnoServe is collaborating, in the edible oils sector, with the Crop Services and Extension Services Departments of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Department of Cooperatives, the Agricultural Development Bank and the Export Promotion Council to implement a World Bank-financed Intermediate Technology Small-Scale Palm Oil Mills Programme which is expected to establish 60 community-owned and operated palm oil processing centres. This programme is based on a model developed and successfully launched by TechnoServe in 1987 in a rural community in Ghana.
In the cereals sector TechnoServe is assisting in the formation of market-driven farmers' service cooperatives. For example in the Upper West Region, TechnoServe is engaged in the privatization of three Farmers Service Centres. Recently, the Government of Ghana requested TechnoServe to design a programme for rural fishing communities also.
The TechnoServe strategy involves an integrated and comprehensive approach: firstly by assisting rural communities directly through managerial and technical support and training; and secondly, indirectly through linking the beneficiary community with local development institutions such as government ministries, banks, technology centres, etc.
The TechnoServe approach places a high premium on community commitment as an indicator of the sustainability of development activities in rural areas. Community members are encouraged to participate in the project design to ensure that it is relevant to local conditions. They are made to fully understand both the benefits and responsibilities (or risks) of participating in the project. Community members are encouraged to organise themselves, form management committees, hold regular planning meetings, keep records of these meetings and officially register their group as a cooperative society. As a final gauge of community commitment, a 25% equity contribution both in cash and in kind (labour, materials) is demanded and the money is required to be deposited in a bank account especially opened for the group's transactions. Members are then trained to install and use simple accounting tools and control measures for monitoring cash flow and materials inventory in their business activities.
TechnoServe's involvement in community enterprise development is regulated by a signed contract detailing the roles and responsibilities of both parties, which is executed scrupulously. After take-off, the operations of the enterprise are monitored by tracking key indicators such as growth in membership, growth in equity contributions, community patronage, increases in productivity, regularity of management meetings. With time, TechnoServe withdraws from direct involvement in the operations of the community enterprise but continues in an advisory capacity through monthly monitoring visits.
TechnoServe's approach to training and development in the informal sector was arrived at through field experience with 35 oil palm growers and processors in the community of NTINANKO, situated about 100 km southwest of Kumasi.
In 1986 when the project started, the village had only 8 women involved in processing palm fruits at the rate of one tonne of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) per month. The intervention by TechnoServe and the installation of a mill resulted in increases in palm fruits processing by 45 women at a rate of 135 tonnes FFB per month. At the rate of utilization of the mill, the investment loan provided by TechnoServe was paid back within 25 months at prevailing commercial rates of interest. In 1991 alone, the mill owners shared a net profit worth over 94% of the invested capital. Many quantifiable social and economic benefits have accrued to the community in general. The nutrition, health and education of children improved along with the general rise in family incomes. Interesting also is the observation that at the start of the project, there were no seamstresses or hairdressers in the village, but 4 years later, 4 seamstresses and 2 hairdressers had set up shops; more money was being spent on personal care and hygiene which had a stimulating effect on retail trade and the growth of service industries.
In 1988, a new project was started with a cooperative of 85 members at Prestea/Begoso to replicate the success story of Ntinanko. The financial and social indicators of this project confirm that all is well. Since 1992, TechnoServe has been contracted by the European Community (EC) and UNIDO/ILO to assist 3 other communities in the oil palm belt.
The World Bank-financed project to establish 60 community-owned and operated palm oil mills throughout the oil palm producing regions of Ghana started in August 1991. Based on the adequacy of raw material supplies, 50 communities have received approvals for the establishment of processing mills. However, only 13 groups have so far met the requirements of legal registration as a cooperative society and equity contributions. These community enterprises are planned to start operations by October 1993 (BOAFO, 1992, 1993, and personal communication). If this happens, 841 persons will have been added to the number of direct beneficiaries of the TechnoServe integrated approach to training and community enterprise development. By the end of the 5 year life-span of the project, it will have assisted a further 1294 members from the remaining 37 potential community enterprises.
In the wake of the political experiments that swept through Ghana in the early 1980s, the government encouraged the formation of trade associations under the then Ministry of Mobilization and Social Welfare. The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), comprising owners and providers of private transport for public use including vehicle owners, drivers and associated workers at the numerous taxi, bus and lorry parks scattered all over the country, is probably one of the best known for various reasons. The Ghana National Association of Garages (GNAG) has also attracted a lot of attention lately, and together with nine other trade associations in the informal sector, it has established an umbrella organization known as the Council of Indigenous Business Associations (CIBA) (CIBA Law, 1993). The other members of CIBA are:
- National Drinking Bar Operators Association
- Ghana Hairdressers and Beauticians Association
- Ghana National Tailors and Dressmakers Association
- Ghana Cooperative Bakers Association
- Federation of Ghanaian Jewellers
- National Association of Refrigeration Mechanics
- National Association of Traditional Healers
- Federation of Market Women
- Ghana National Traditional Caterers Association.
The Ghana National Association of Garages (GNAG) is a voluntary organization for practitioners of trades in the automobile industry. Membership includes welders, mechanics, electricians, blacksmiths, upholsterers, auto-paint technicians, etc. The Association was formed in 1982 when, as a result of directives emanating from the Accra Metropolitan Authority, temporary structures which housed these tradesmen were all demolished. The Association was formed in order to elect representatives to present proposals to and negotiate with government over the provision of more permanent work stations. This initiative has culminated in a national industrial estates project through which plots of land are being made available in all district and regional capitals to accommodate tradesmen of the automobile industry at a common site. Eight such parks have been planned for the Accra-Tema Metropolis, about half of which are already operational. A world-famous industrial estate exists at Suame, Kumasi where the first Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit (ITTU) of the Technology Transfer Centre of the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi and the GRATIS Project was located; a second industrial park has also been planned for Kumasi. At the gold-mining town of Obuasi is located yet another functional industrial estate.
The industrial estates envisaged by GNAG have an elaborate plan for the provision of roads, public utilities (water, electricity, telephone, toilets, etc.), shops for caterers and spare parts dealers, a health centre, a training school for artisans, etc.
GNAG recently contracted a loan from the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) for the purchase of 2 transformers for 2 of the parks in Accra. The association has also benefitted from a World Bank loan to the tune of US$630,000 since 1989. The World Bank facility is assisting the organization in the training of its members at formal institutions in the country for short durations of time. This project makes use of facilities at the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) and the Accra Technical Training Centre (ATTC) both in the Greater Accra Region. In the Volta, Northern and Western Regions, the facilities of Ho, Tamale and Takoradi Polytechnics are utilized respectively, while in Ashanti Region the project is executed through the Kumasi Technical Institute, Kumasi. The World Bank facility also provides for the supply of tools to members of GNAG.
However, in all these transactions the Association has found it extremely difficult to meet repayment and other contractual obligations. Consequently the GNAG is heavily indebted to its creditors and benefactors. The tools imported with World Bank assistance are still locked up in bonded warehouses as the beneficiaries have been unable to raise the required finances for their clearance. GNAG finds the concessionary interest rates of 20% for NBSSI and 22% for the World Bank loans unbearable even when current commercial interest rates (1993) are 36%.
GNAG is represented on the governing board of the GRATIS Project and its members benefit from training programmes organized by the latter. However, members of GNAG have little appreciation of the mode of operation of the GRATIS Project and its ITTUs because, in their opinion, it is working against their collective interest by providing competitive services which they complain were not part of the original mandate of GRATIS.
The majority of GNAG members are illiterates, particularly those who acquired their skills through the apprenticeship system. The members of the Association readily admit that the majority of youths ordinarily requesting admission as apprentices are undisciplined and difficult-to-mould candidates who are often school drop-outs. However, the Association of late has been experiencing improvements in the potential quality of apprentices as educated children and wards of members of the Association are taking more and more interest in the operations of their guardians/parents' workshops, as finding jobs elsewhere has become extremely difficult. GNAG members expressed concern about the future of such positive developments in the wake of effects of trade liberalization on the operation of repair workshops in the automobile industry. The availability of second-hand spare parts in large quantities in the country has affected the work of mechanics in general, rendering their operations less challenging particularly to the more endowed apprentices. Currently, garages have very few opportunities indeed for overhauling a defective engine. The cheaper practice has been to replace the defective engine with a used one imported from Europe.
The activities of the Ghana National Association of Garages are directed and coordinated by a National Executive Committee which is elected every two years at the Annual General Meeting at which delegates from district and regional branches represent the entire membership. Currently the office of National Chairman rotates between the Ashanti and Greater Accra regional branches since the other regional associations find it difficult to meet their obligations to the national secretariat. Nevertheless, all regional chairmen are members of the National Executive Committee.
The day-to-day operations of the association are assured by an Executive Secretary who is an employee paid by the association. He is ably assisted by 3 other workers at the GNAG secretariat. Interestingly, the incumbent National Chairman of GNAG is currently a Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare (GNAG, personal communication 1993).
There are no special institutional arrangements for people in formal sector employment with interests in Small and Microenterprise (SME) or informal sector self-employment to be identified and encouraged. The initiatives are completely left to the individual to take advantage of the programmes available to suit his/her ambitions. However, occasional lectures and seminars to particular groups on the subject have always received wide publicity in the national media. University students have been addressed by representatives of NBSSI and the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), and public sector employees targetted for redeployment have also received orientation courses and training in entrepreneurship. But, by and large, committed interest in informal sector operations for people already employed in the formal sector comes principally through family connections and other close relational ties. The records reveal that workers identified for redeployment from the public sector are usually less motivated entrepreneurial trainees than other selected candidates (Dave, 1990).
However, one intervention that is proving particularly attractive is the EMPRETEC approach. EMPRETEC-Ghana is a technical cooperation programme designed and executed by the Transnational Corporations and Management Division of the United Nations (UNTCMD). The programme is locally sponsored by Barclays Bank of Ghana and the NBSSI and supported by funds from UNDP. EMPRETEC is an international network which promotes business transactions between enterprises in participating countries and transnational corporations through joint ventures, subcontracting etc. thereby assisting local businesses to expand their activities across borders. Participating countries include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Nigeria, Uruguay and Zimbabwe.
Trainees are selected through the completion of a detailed application form followed by a comprehensive interview during which the personal entrepreneurial competences of candidates are assessed. The selection follows nationwide advertisements for the training programmes,
An intensive training in entrepreneurial skills is given in 10 days emphasising power relations, planning and achievement focus. Specific topics discussed include:
Self-confidence and Independence;
Persuasion and Networking;
Financial Planning and Management;
Systematic Planning and Monitoring;
Risk Assessment and Time Management;
Opportunity Search and Creativity;
Persistence;
Commitment to Work Contract;
Competitiveness of World Economy and Demands for Efficiency and Quality
Officials of local financial institutions are invited to interact with trainees and assist with the evaluation of business plans. Other invited guests to the training programmes have included Inspectors of Taxes and successful entrepreneurs.
After training, the EMPRETEC programme provides management support and advisory services to strengthen the capacity of the fledgling businesses. Consultants visit ax-trainees regularly to advice on marketing, financial, production, personnel and other management functions. There are also follow-up seminars of shorter duration on management skills.
EMPRETEC-Ghana organises venture forums to put entrepreneurs in touch with investors or potential investors and assists the former in raising finances from traditional sources. On a few occasions EMPRETEC-Ghana was able to convince banks to relax stringent demands on loan applications in favour of clients.
Nine workshops have been held in all and 265 people have been trained. Alumni of the EMPRETEC training programmes have formed an association called the EMPRETEC Business Forum which meets once a month in Accra and Kumasi. Membership of the association is highly coveted. Empretecos (alumni) are members of an active international association which sponsors the circulation of a directory of members and their products. This year, a global EMPRETEC Fair and the Fifth Latin American EMPRETEC Meeting is being held in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil in September. Empretecos from Ghana have been invited. The registration fee is only US$50.
The EMPRETEC approach holds so much promise that EMPRETEC-Ghana is being invited to expand its activities. The British ODA is strengthening the programme by providing technical support, sub-contracting facilities and linkages with British institutions and firms. For example, it is envisaged to use the services of the Crown Agents (to help reduce the risks) for supplies of essential equipment and machinery and the British Executive Service Organisation for the supply of technical experts (EMPRETEC, 1993, personal communication).
The Association of Ghana Industries has contracted EMPRETEC-Ghana, under the sponsorship of USAID and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation of Germany, to train its members all over the country (Richardson, 1993).
EMPRETEC-Ghana has also been requested by the government to collaborate with selected Universities in the country to introduce entrepreneurship development courses into their curricula. Entrepreneurship awareness seminars for public servants, bankers and the general public are also to be organized on a regular basis.
Finally, EMPRETEC plans to establish business incubators to house and nurture fresh enterprises into successful commercial ventures (EMPRETEC, 1993, personal communication).
Studies on economic growth and national development have always underlined the relative contributions of labour and the quality of the human resource. Thus governments have always placed commensurate emphasis on investments in education and training. The Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) otherwise known as Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) embarked upon in Ghana since 1983 has included education and training components. Reforms have been implemented since 1987 from the basic cycle of schooling through secondary and post-secondary education. Vocational and technical education and training are being strengthened and non-formal avenues for training are also being expanded and improved upon. As employment opportunities in the formal sector of the economy become limited, attention is now being directed by government and donor agencies to the potentials of the informal sector in contributing to economic growth. The educational reforms now emphasise the acquisition of skills which promote self-employment and entrepreneurship.
Evaluation Criteria
To evaluate the Ghanaian experience in training for development, the organizational and operational requirements of the institutions must be estimated and the extent to which they have been met determined. These requirements involve considering matters on management, instructional staffing and availability of instructional resources and support services. The equity of access of the training programmes to their target groups and the degree of participation in them also need to be considered. Gender and demographic factors have relevance here.
Then the cost-effectiveness of the various interventions need to be ascertained. Thus matters of funding and programme sustainability have to be examined. Process efficiencies and product quality are also important indicators of the impact of the respective training programmes,
Finally the contribution of the products of these training programmes to the national economic effort and their usefulness to themselves determine the desirability of these programmes,
Different aspects of these criteria were discussed, where suitable, under the different interventions cited in Sections 2 through 7.
National Economic Context
Structurally, the economy of Ghana is still fragile after 10 years of SAP/ERP. Foreign exchange earnings from traditional exports have been decreasing as a result of the continued deterioration in the terms of international trade in primary products. Efforts at promoting non-traditional exports are commendable but the aggregate effects have been insignificant. The manufacturing sector makes very little contribution to export earnings as production in the sector is recognisably uncompetitive. Ghana's import-export balance has been increasing in favour of imports. In 1992, imports exceeded exports by about US$600 million. The economy is characterised by increasing dependence on foreign aid (Richardson, 1993).
GDP growth in real terms declined from 5.3% in 1991 to an estimated 3.9% in 1992. Agriculture also declined by 0.6%. For four years in succession, the growth performance of the manufacturing sector was only 2.7% or less. There were shortfalls in revenue from most sources yet expenditure far exceeded programmed estimates. Market interest rates are around 36%.
The value of the national currency continues to fall. In 1992 alone, the Cedi depreciated by more than 30% against major world currencies. The rate of inflation at the end of the year was about 28%, up from 18% in the previous year. In the wake of a 60% budgetary increase in the price of petroleum products, the inflationary rate in 1993 is estimated to be significantly higher. The purchasing power of workers is low; pressure on disposable incomes has resulted in a weakened demand for manufactured and value-added goods. The cost of living is relatively high.
However international confidence in Ghana's economy is firm. At a donors' conference in Paris recently, over US$2.1 billion was pledged to support Ghana's economic recovery efforts for 1993 and 1994 (Richardson, 1993).
Concluding Remarks
In general, from first cycle institutions to universities, teachers' salaries are low. As a result, many of them do additional jobs to make ends meet. There is, on the whole, a net outflow of experienced professionals from teaching functions to other occupations. At all levels of education in Ghana, there are inadequate numbers of experienced teachers particularly in scientific, technical and vocational subjects. The quality of products in these specialisations therefore suffers. However, a few institutions attract and retain the few specialists available. Students from these institutions are well-trained. Students from the others sometimes do not study the subject in question at all and therefore suffer a permanent handicap. This disparity exists even between urban institutions; between urban and rural institutions, the disparity is further aggravated.
Infrastructural facilities and instructional resources suffer a similar fate. Therefore the acute financial constraints in the Ghanaian economy impose a dilemma which confronts quality and coverage.
Competition to enter the better endowed institutions is keen. Often, admission and attendance of these institutions entail significantly higher expenses.
In 1992, only 63% of the population of children of school-going age were in school, and the majority were male. In primary school, 54.3% of pupils were male; in junior secondary school male dominance increased to 59%. Only 30% of junior secondary school graduates have access to senior secondary education and 67% of them are male. Furthermore, post-secondary education is available to only 27.3% of senior secondary school graduates. In the universities, male dominance reaches 81%.
In primary school, education is not entirely free. There are financial demands on parents and guardians which discourage children from poorer backgrounds from benefitting fully from basic schooling. The demands in junior secondary school are even more intolerable. Nevertheless, the drive continues to provide more schools particularly in rural districts where most of the responsibility is placed on the communities themselves.
Female participation in formal schooling drops progressively from primary through post-secondary education. Training programmes in income generation therefore focus attention on women's activities. Though women also participate in the cited training programmes for practitioners engaged in viable informal sector activities, there are organizations which cater for their special needs. One such example is Women's World Banking.
All the programmes reviewed are well-intentioned, well-designed and are serving their target groups satisfactorily. However, education and training are not self-serving ventures. Even though they engender sociopolitical advantages, the longer term challenge of economic development must be adequately addressed. The cost-effectiveness of the various interventions becomes important.
The economy of Ghana is in a parlous state. Training for development, including informal sector interventions, must therefore lead to a gradual reduction in the indigenous, traditional component of the dualistic economy in favour of a modernising and competitive sector.
Apart from poverty alleviation schemes, which in fact are social welfare programmes, education and training interventions in the informal sector must lead to the production of modern aggressive entrepreneurs whose products and services are competitive in international trade. The EMPRETEC programme holds such a promise. Unfortunately, the programmes controlled by government are more renowned for their wide coverage; in effect, they serve a good cause as part of an awareness campaign. Many beneficiaries of these programmes look forward to follow-up support which rarely materializes. The case study of the Textile Dyeing Section of Tema ITTU provides us with a vivid illustration from the GRATIS project. The NBSSI has also been rebuked by the private sector for similar shortcomings (Richardson, 1993; CIBA Law, 1993).
By and large, as a result of the Economic Recovery Programme many new initiatives have been made in human resource development. Non-formal avenues of education and training are being developed and the informal sector is receiving adequate attention. Ghana is moving towards a market-driven export-led economy with the private sector as its engine of growth. Internal funding of projects is, however, a major obstacle.
In conclusion, the experience obtained from the collection of information for this report has been very instructive. For most of the activities, reliable reference documents do not exist. Most of the information contained in this report was derived from personal interviews and classified correspondence made available personally to the investigator in good faith. Data collection for this work consequently depended heavily on personal contact with and goodwill from key personnel.
Nevertheless, it usually took five or more visits to obtain a satisfactory package of information from an identified source.
It is duly recognized that an independent evaluation of the programmes identified will enrich the overall quality of this assignment even though the present report attempted weakly to offer some assessment mainly from the informants' point of view. Many interviewees showed signs of political sensitivity in discussions concerning their jobs and in the general absence of adequately factual information, their opinions were considered largely subjective. At this stage, the objective of the work was to gather as much information as possible on education and training for the informal sector in Ghana, ... the state-of-the-art, so to speak. To add value to what has already been achieved, it is recommended that a second phase of the study be commissioned to investigate the extent to which the identified programmes are meeting their projected targets and stated objectives, and to consider as well other related concerns.
TABLE 1 - TYPES OF FORMAL SYSTEM TRAINING INSTITUTIONS SHOWING ENROLMENT OF TRAINEES PER YEAR (1992) AND GENDER REPRESENTATION
|
ENROLMENT | ||
|
Basic Education |
TOTAL |
% MALE |
|
Primary School |
2,001,000 |
54.3 |
|
Junior Secondary School |
604,200 |
58.8 |
|
Total Basic |
2,605,200 |
|
|
Secondary Education | ||
|
Senior Secondary School |
225,300 |
66.7 |
|
Vocational Technical |
42,000* |
|
|
Total Secondary |
267,300 |
|
|
Post-Secondary Education | ||
|
Teacher Training |
12,506 |
66.0 |
|
Specialized Colleges |
2,287 |
79.6 |
|
Polytechnics |
9,791 |
67.7 |
|
Total Post-Secondary (Ministry of Education) |
24,584 |
|
|
Other Ministries: | ||
|
Information/Health Agriculture, etc. (estimates) |
1,500 |
|
|
Universities (1990) |
9,515 |
81.3 |
|
Total post-secondary |
35,599 |
|
|
GRAND TOTAL |
2,908,099 |
|
* 59.5% of this enrolment is in private sector schools considered to belong to the informal sector.
TABLE 2 - EXAMPLES OF TRAINING INSTITUTIONS FOR INFORMAL SECTOR PRACTITIONERS SHOWING ENROLMENT ESTIMATES PER YEAR (1992)
|
Education Training for Income Generation and Survival |
|
|
Department of Social Welfare |
4100 |
|
Institute of Adult Education |
5800 |
|
Non-Formal Education Division |
|
|
Training for Practitioners in Viable Activities |
|
|
MDPI |
600 |
|
NBSSI |
140 |
|
GRATIS |
150 |
|
GEPC Export School |
300 |
|
TechnoServe |
300 |
|
EMPRETECH |
100 |
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Dave, R P (1990) Review of Entrepreneurship Development Programmes in Ghana, EDII, Gujarat, India, August.
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NACVET (1993b) Case Study on Proprietary Training Markets in Ghana, Office of the National Coordinator, Accra.
Powell, J W (1986) GRATIS: Handbook on the Operations of the Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit, Ministry of Industry Science and Technology, Accra.
Richardson, J K (1993) Presidential Address: 33rd Annual General Meeting of the Association of Ghana Industries, Accra, 28 July.
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