Apprenticeship Training System In Ghana: Processes, Institutional Dynamics And Challenges

Abstract

Ghana’s informal apprenticeship system has been an important part of its informal economy, particularly for its role as a complimentary means of skills transfer and the development of the nation’s human capital required for the overall national development. In spite of its role, little attention has been paid to this sector over the years. This study interrogates and documents the processes, institutional dynamics and challenges that confront the informal apprenticeship system of Ghana a means of skills acquisition and transfer in the wake of the ever changing social and economic conditions in Ghana. The study adopted both exploratory and descriptive approaches. Using quota sampling technique, 200 questionnaires were distributed among four broad trades namely; wood workers; auto mechanics; textile and apparel; and beauticians and hair dressers. This was complimented by key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The study revealed that the system provides an alternative path for nearly 33 per cent of students who drop out before completing Junior High School and nearly 42 per cent who drop out after completing Senior High School. It was also evident that the master craftsmen/women generally have a weak theoretical basis for what they do besides the financial challenges they have. A two part training programme has been proposed: a theoretical and practical component. It is also recommended that a policy be developed to improve the system without the state necessarily capturing and controlling it. BACKGROUND Human capital has been cited as a critical ingredient for a nation’s growth and development. This fact is supported by the conscious effort that was made at Ghana’s independence to produce capable and highly skilled human resource needed to drive the country’s developmental agenda. In his last speech to the old Legislative Assembly in 1957, Ghana’s first president outlined his government’s vision which had education and skills development as the Fulcrum (McWilliam and Kwamena-Poh, 1975:94). In his view Ghana’s educational system was to achieve the following: first, it was to be used as a tool for producing a scientifically literate population. Secondly, for tackling mainly the fundamental causes of low productivity; and thirdly, for producing knowledge to harness Ghana’s economic potential (McWilliam and Kwamena-Poh, 1975:112). Having such a focus, traditional educational and skills transfer systems –the apprenticeship system that catered to the different needs of society prior to pre-independence, independence and post-independence eras were deemphasized and tagged unproductive hence down played in the years that followed. In Ghana, the postindependence educational reforms including the Basic Education reforms which sought to integrate skill transfer failed to deliver the goods for a number of reasons. For instance the increases in school fees; cost of textbooks; and withdrawal of state subsidies that came to be associated with Ghana’s educational reforms that emphasized cost recovery in secondary and tertiary education was largely exclusionary as it priced out poor families the hardest from participation in post-basic education (World Bank 2004). The inability of the educational system to convey the requisite technical and vocational skills to the students as envisioned, made the products of the system unemployable by the formal sector. These were taking place at a time when urbanization and globalization were changing the economic, social and political landscape of Ghana. As a survival strategy and coping mechanism for a good many of those who drop out at the Basic Education level, the best option has been learning a trade and settling in the informal economy. This obviously brought a new awakening and increased interest in the informal economy in Ghana especially the apprenticeship system (Fox and Gaal 2008).