Project implemented from March 2023 to March 2025
Ghana is actively developing agricultural value chains to ensure food security, job creation, and wealth generation in its most vulnerable regions. The country's agricultural and agro-processing sectors are growing significantly and there is a need for more skilled technical staff to improve productivity in commercial farming.
The EU and BMZ-funded VET Toolbox project was designed to enhance the delivery of demand-driven skills to cater for investment needs in 11 selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The main objective of the project was to support human capital development to enhance investment in supply chains in these selected countries, through the implementation of targeted skills development and by strengthening VET delivery systems for employment opportunities, especially for youth. It aimed to improve the effectiveness of VET systems by making them more opportunity-driven to drive inclusive economic growth, social development and the creation of decent jobs.
In Ghana, VET Toolbox aimed to support skills development in the agriculture sector across the Northern, North-East, and Savannah regions of Ghana. It has closely collaborated with the Savannah Zone Agricultural Productivity Improvement Programme (SAPIP) to develop tailored training for youth that responds directly to private sector needs.
Our impact
VET Toolbox has worked with public and private partners to create a conducive environment for local job creation in the agriculture and agro-processing sectors. Over two years of implementation, the project succeeded in:
- Developing three distinct curricula in Agronomy, Farm Enterprise Management, and Tractor Operation Maintenance and Management, in collaboration with training providers and private farms.
- Pioneering work-based learning in the sector through collaboration between commercial farms and training providers to provide inclusive employment for graduates.
- Enhancing dialogue between the sector’s actors through a sustainable multi-level Public-Private Dialogue platform, aiming to formalise and streamline sector-specific VET in response to investments and labour market dynamics.
Upscaling and sustainability
- The multi-layered Public-Private Dialogue platform serves as a good example of sector-specific skills development that attracts private-sector investment and can easily be transferred to other sectors in the country.
- Curricula developed by VET Toolbox are in the process of being signed off for inclusion on the National TVET Qualification Framework for accreditation, ensuring a sustainable offer of accredited short-term training by VTIs.
- Formalisation of workplace experience learning placements between the private sector and VTIs contributes to improving the competency-based VET offer in Ghana. It serves as the blueprint for CTVET to facilitate practical skills acquisition for young people through a work-based learning approach, increasing their employability.
Read more in the Factsheet in the Download section below.