Research conducted by the Northern Regional National Youth Authority to assess the skills gap, skills needs, and economically viable technical and vocational ventures for youths in the Northern, Savannah, and North East Regions revealed that just a handful of youths in these regions, approximating 16.3%, were skilled, whereas an alarming 57.7% are unskilled, with 26% being semi-skilled.
According to Mr. Mumuni Sulemana, the Supervising Director for the Northern, North East, and Savannah Regional Secretariats of the NYA, this might spiral into a national security concern.
The research revealed that given the opportunity and an enabling environment, youth across the Northern, North East, and Savannah Regions respectively will want to be equipped with technical and vocational skills. This is evidenced by the overwhelming 88% of respondents who are willing to undergo technical and vocational training. Preferably, if the training will span between 4–6 months with an exit plan that ensures support for beneficiaries to be resilient and their ventures sustainable.
Ndukwe Emmanuel, the Ag. Programme officer, posited that the research is very timely as the NYA is poised to roll out the Skills Towards Employment and Migration Programme, which is a context-fit intervention to equip youth with economically viable skills that would enable them to thrive in the respective Northern Regions instead of migrating to other regions to engage in jobs with poor working conditions. He further submitted that, since the youth themselves proposed the economic, technical, and vocational skills areas they would want to be trained in, when the programme is rolled out, it will be sustainable, successful, and have far-reaching impact.
The research also revealed that among the skilled youth, only 21.8% possessed professional certificates from accredited institutions such as NVTI, COTVET, and NABTEX. This places the 78.2%, who are largely certificated by their master trainers, at a disadvantage of not being engaged by state institutions to provide services related to their technical know-how.
Indeed, the research demonstrated that while youth in different geographic scopes of the study have varied opinions when it comes to technical and vocational skills areas they would want to be trained in, fashion/dressmaking, smock weaving, and cosmetology were the top three skills areas that resonated with youth in all regions under study.
At the end of the presentation of the research, Mr. Mumuni assured that, based on the findings from the research, the National Youth Authority, with support from partners, is looking forward to rolling out a technical and vocational skills training program that is context fit to recorded responses in the three regions under study, as well as creating a technical and vocational skills hub that shall serve as an incubation center for program beneficiaries and a one-stop shop for technical/vocational service seekers.
A total of 3,041 youth respondents were involved in this research. Questions were administered to 1,747 respondents in person and 1,295 respondents via Google forms. The Northern Region recorded the highest number of respondents with 1,670, followed by Savannah Region with 778 and the North East Region with 593. Persons with Disability [PWDs] numbering 99 accounted for 3.3% of total respondents.
Below is the full research.
By: Abigail Adobea Boadi
