The promise of creating one million jobs through digital skills and coding training, as highlighted in the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) manifesto, has drawn optimism and scepticism from stakeholders in Ghana’s education and employment sectors.
Kofi Asare, Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, has added his voice to the discourse, underscoring a critical reality: digital skills training, while commendable, is futile without corresponding job creation.
In a detailed critique, Mr Asare stressed the need for a comprehensive, job-oriented policy framework to complement the proposed digital training initiative.
Drawing from past experiences, he remarked that despite substantial investments into billions of cedis in digital skills programs, the youth unemployment rate remains alarmingly high, with many beneficiaries of such training still languishing in joblessness.
“We have invested billions into digital skills training, yet still have high youth unemployment. Many of the training beneficiaries are jobless. Lesson: Digital skills/coding training does not automatically create jobs.”
Kofi Asare, Executive Director of Africa Education Watch
He noted that while the training programs themselves are relatively straightforward, they often fall short in ensuring tangible employment opportunities. This disconnect, he argued, is primarily due to the lack of deliberate strategies to facilitate access to jobs or enable self-employment for the beneficiaries.
Mr Asare’s analysis shed light on an apparent gap in Ghana’s approach to addressing youth unemployment through digital skills training: the absence of deliberate linkages between training programs and the job market.
Without these connections, Mr Asare stressed that the much-touted promise of transforming the country’s youth into a digitally empowered workforce risks becoming another political mirage.
Proposing Pragmatic Solutions
To make the NDC’s promise of one million digital jobs within four years a reality, Kofi Asare advocated for a policy-driven focus on securing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) contracts, particularly from international markets.
According to him, BPO contracts could serve as a vital conduit for creating employment opportunities that align with the digital skills acquired by trainees.
“The Accra Digital Centre is just not enough,” he stated, highlighting the inadequacy of existing infrastructure and the urgent need for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to drive the expansion of job opportunities in the digital sector.
He emphasised that for a promise of one million jobs, the scale of intervention must be exponentially larger and strategically aligned with global market demands.
Mr Asare also pointed out that training programs, often procured as standalone activities, are the easiest component to execute. However, he stressed that their true value lies in their integration with job creation mechanisms, a step that many previous initiatives have overlooked.
In calling for a recalibrated approach to digital skills development, Mr Asare urged the next government to prioritize sourcing digital jobs from international markets to sustain the promise of employment for the youth.
He articulated the need for a strategic alignment of digital skills programs with job creation efforts, describing the current trajectory as insufficient and unsustainable.
“The incoming government should attach premium to sourcing digital jobs overseas for the ‘youth man dems,’” he remarked, employing a colloquial expression to underscore the urgency of addressing youth unemployment.
Digital skills training, while essential, cannot stand alone. It requires a robust ecosystem that bridges the gap between training and tangible employment opportunities.
If Ghana is to harness the potential of its youthful population in the digital age, policymakers must move beyond rhetoric and adopt actionable strategies that not only equip the youth with skills but also create pathways to meaningful and sustainable employment.
For Asare, the message is clear: “Digital skills training is useless without digital jobs”.
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