Ghana must place vocational and technical training at the core of its youth employment strategy if it is to generate sustainable jobs and reduce pressure on the state, lawmaker Patrick Yaw Boamah said in a video shared on his Youtube Page, arguing that skills, not credentials alone, will determine the country’s economic future.
Boamah, a Member of Parliament for Okaikwei Central, said countries that invested early in technical education built deeper pools of entrepreneurs and small businesses, citing Germany’s post-World War II reconstruction as a case study in how skills translate into long-term productivity and wealth creation.
“Germany invested heavily in technical and vocational education after the war, and that is why they are strong in skills development,” he said. “That is how you create skilled labour, SMEs and employment. These people don’t rely on government to survive.”
His comments come as Ghana faces persistent youth unemployment and limited fiscal space to expand public sector hiring. While university enrollment has grown, many graduates struggle to find work, exposing a widening gap between academic training and market demand.
Boamah said vocational skills allow young people to take commercial risks, form enterprises and employ others rather than wait for salaried jobs. Skilled workers, he said, are better positioned to secure loans, bid for contracts and build businesses that can absorb multiple employees.
“You can’t rely on a monthly salary alone,” he said. “Those who took the risk to set up their own businesses are doing better than many who stayed in the public service.”
Beyond training, Boamah argued that access to finance remains the missing link. He proposed that Ghana’s universities, including technical and vocational institutions, jointly establish a dedicated financial institution to fund student-led ventures. Under the model, business ideas developed during or after school would be assessed by technical committees and financed through the bank.
The objective, he said, is to ensure graduates leave school with viable enterprises rather than unemployment prospects. Over time, that could ease pressure on government hiring and shift job creation decisively toward the private sector.
Boamah pointed to immediate opportunities for skills-based businesses, including the production of school furniture, printing of textbooks and learning materials, and small-scale manufacturing to supply both public and private schools. Gaps in basic infrastructure and supplies, he said, represent clear openings for youth-led enterprises if capital and technical support are available.
He also cited the role of vocational training in absorbing young people already outside the formal education system, arguing that targeted skills programmes could draw informal workers into structured employment and expand the productive base of the economy.
The focus on vocational education aligns with a broader push to strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for the bulk of employment but remain constrained by skills shortages and limited financing. However, vocational reform must be matched with investment in modern equipment, instructors and predictable funding to deliver results.
Boamah acknowledged the challenges but stressed that entrepreneurship demands persistence. “It’s not easy,” he said. “But tenacity is what separates those who succeed from those who wait.”
For Ghana’s youth, he said, vocational training is no longer a fallback option. It is a pathway to ownership, job creation and economic independence in a country where growth increasingly depends on skills rather than state payrolls.
