The Number We Should Never Get Comfortable With
Nearly two million young Ghanaians between the ages of 15 and 35 are currently NEET, not in education, employment, or training. That figure, from the Ghana Statistical Service, is not just a statistic. It is a daily reality for families across this country, and it should be the starting point of every serious conversation about youth development in Ghana.
Read more: From Skills to Enterprise: Why Ghana’s TVET Conversation Needs a Rethink
It was with this reality in mind that our CEO, Erasmus Mensah Ackon, joined a fireside panel at the launch of the Ghana Career and Migration Fair 2026, alongside Ghana TVET Service and the Association of Ghana Industries, an event hosted by GIZ Ghana and the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Ghana (AHK Ghana).
Technical Skills Are Not Enough
Ghana has invested in TVET, Technical and Vocational Education and Training, as a pathway to reducing youth unemployment. And rightly so. Trades like welding, electrical work, plumbing, dressmaking, and construction are the backbone of any growing economy.
But there is a gap we are not talking about enough.
Many young people graduate from TVET programmes with strong technical skills and very little else. No business knowledge. No understanding of how to price their services, manage clients, or grow beyond being a one-person operation. And critically, no capital to even get started.
The result? Skilled young people who are still unemployed, or underemployed, not because they lack ability but because the system trained them to work for someone, not to build something.
A New Way to Read TVET
At the panel, Erasmus put forward an idea worth sitting with: what if we started reading TVET as “Technical and Vocational Entrepreneurship Training?”
It is not just a rebrand. It is a mindset shift that changes what we teach, how we teach it, and what we measure as success. A graduate who can weld is valuable. A graduate who can weld, price a job, manage a team, and grow a welding business? That is transformation.
The graduates who will move the needle in Ghana’s economy will not just be technically trained. They will be trained to build something with what they know.
The Cooperative Model — A Proven Solution Worth Borrowing
One of the most practical ideas raised at the panel was the cooperative model.
In Ghanaian agriculture, cooperatives have allowed smallholder farmers to pool resources, access shared equipment, negotiate better prices, and reduce individual risk. It works because it removes the burden of every individual having to own everything before they can operate.
The same principle can work in TVET trades.
Many skilled graduates cannot set up their own workshops because the cost of tools and equipment is too high. Instead of every young welder, carpenter, or seamstress locking up capital they don’t have to own their own workspace, what if communities built shared workshops, cooperatively owned, collectively managed, and open to multiple tradespeople?
It reduces the barrier to entry. It builds community. And it has already been proven to work on Ghanaian soil.
What This Means for Duapa Werkspace
At Duapa Werkspace, we have always believed that skills without entrepreneurship is an incomplete equation. Our programmes are built around not just teaching young people what to do, but how to build something sustainable with what they learn.
Conversations like the Ghana Career and Migration Fair give us energy, because they remind us that the ecosystem is waking up to this reality. Hubs, government agencies, development partners, and industry are beginning to align around a shared vision for Ghana’s workforce.
We look forward to the main event in September — and to continuing to be part of the solution.
Duapa Werkspace is an innovation hub based in Takoradi, empowering women and youth for sustainable livelihoods through training, mentorship, and community. Visit us at www.duapawerkspace.com
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