The government says its new National Apprenticeship Programme (NAP) is designed to directly tackle youth unemployment, offering young people between 15 and 25 years a pathway out of joblessness and insecure informal work.
Bono Regional Minister, Mr. Joseph Addae Akwaboah, speaking at the induction ceremony for 700 apprentices, said the initiative would provide free, industry-relevant training to thousands of young people across the country, ensuring they acquire technical, vocational, and entrepreneurial skills that respond to the demands of the modern labour market.
“Nearly 1.2 million young Ghanaians aged 15 to 35 are unemployed or under-employed, with close to 70 percent of our youth stuck in the informal sector without job security,” Mr. Akwaboah said.
He said the NAP seeks to change this by equipping our young people with the tools and confidence to work for themselves or secure gainful employment.
The training programme, which targets 10,000 beneficiaries nationwide, covers priority sectors such as agriculture and agro-processing, ICT, renewable energy, hospitality, fashion, cosmetology, construction, traditional crafts, and creative industries.
However, he says participants will receive personal protective equipment, learning materials, and start-up toolkits, with mentorship provided to help them transition into self-employment or small businesses after completion.
For young people aged 15–25 years, who face the most limited opportunities, the scheme promises more than just training. Beneficiaries will graduate with nationally recognised certification, opening doors to formal jobs or helping them to build their own enterprises.
Nonetheless, unemployment and under-employment among the 15–24 age group currently stand at about 5.4 percent. However, when factoring in insecure informal work, estimates rise sharply to 38.8 percent. This reality, Mr Akwaboah said, underlines the urgency of the NAP.
He noted that with thousands of new entrants joining the labour market every year, Ghana could not afford to leave its youth unskilled and unprepared. “Training alone is not enough,” he added, explaining that a monitoring and evaluation framework had been built into the NAP to track results and ensure its impact.
However, the programme, if effectively implemented, could be a turning point for young people trapped in the informal sector, where incomes are low, jobs insecure, and opportunities for advancement limited.
