.... and vocational training in Ghana

Mr. Ebenezer Ato Simpson, Fund Manager at the Skills Development Fund (SDF) has disclosed that SDF since its inception has contributed immensely to the quality of skills and vocational training in Ghana.

He stated that the skills development fund has also contributed meaningfully towards the upgrading of skills of employees in both the formal and the informal sectors as well as boosting the work of research in tertiary institutions in the country.

Speaking to New Era in an exclusive interview, Mr. Ato Simpson reiterated that the Skills Development Fund is well positioned to live up to its mandate of providing funding geared towards the upgrading of skills and acquisition of new and innovative technologies in the informal and formal sectors of the economy. He said the SDF since its establishment in 2011 has awarded over 29 million Ghana cedis in grants to support small, medium and large scale enterprises, science, training and research institutions in the country that has directly created 5336 jobs.

According to him, although the project encountered challenges at the initial stages, management of SDF was able to intensify their work to address the issues, paving the way for the current performance of attaining a high level of coverage in respect of the target that the institution set for itself. . The Skills Development Fund (SDF) is an initiative of the Government of Ghana to support the development of skills in the country by assisting businesses and industries, workers associations and educational institutions that require skills to become more productive and competitive. The project is sponsored by the World Bank and DANIDA.

He disclosed that, Accra Brewery Limited is one of the 84 businesses that is benefiting from the project for the first time.Mr Ato Simpson said ABL’s participation was due to increasing patronage of the company’s brands, necessitating improved skills deployment to meet market demands. The Fund manager indicated that the company is constrained in maintaining its equipment fleet as well as improvement in skills training. We decided to support them after the company satisfied the criteria for obtaining the grant.”

The SDF is a five-year multi-donor-funded intervention initiated by the Government of Ghana in 2011 to provide critical solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing the development of industry, skills and technology.

The project strategically focuses on strengthening the institutional capacity of the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) to coordinate the delivery of technical and vocational skills and innovative technology required by industry in the country.

With funding from the World Bank and DANIDA, SDF is implemented by the Project Support Unit of COTVET and aims at providing a demand-driven response to challenges faced by the productive sectors of Ghana.