By Stanley Senya
Accra, Oct. 3, GNA- The Design & Technology Institute (DTI), in collaboration with Accents & Art (A&A) and with support from the Mastercard Foundation, has marked a major milestone in Ghana’s workforce development journey.
Through its flagship Precision Quality Internship (PQI) Programme, 1,800 young Ghanaians were trained in year one.
This has culminated in the inaugural cohort of 308 graduates, where 55 per cent of them were women.
The PQI Programme is designed to tackle Ghana’s urgent Not in Employment, Education, or Training (NEET) challenge.
With 1.9 million youth in this category and youth unemployment at nearly 33 per cent, the programme provides a practical solution by equipping young people with both industry-relevant hard skills such as precision welding and fabrication, CAD/CAM, auto spraying, electricals, hospitality, and fashionand soft skills including problem-solving, teamwork, adaptability, and communication.
This holistic approach transforms unemployed graduates into job-ready professionals and entrepreneurial job creators.
Ms. Bernice Gavor, General Manager of Accents & Art, speaking at a ceremony and exhibition in Accra said, “Our nation is poised to lead within the African Continental Free Trade Area, but we cannot do it with an unskilled workforce. By investing our time and expertise, we are not just preparing these young people for employment; we are securing Ghanas economic future.”
She said the PQI Programme directly aligned with the Government’s TVET transformation agenda, ensuring graduates develop workplace-ready competencies that meet industry standards and contribute to national industrialisation.
Ms Gavor said it also supported the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy, which aimed to enable millions of young Africans, particularly women to access dignified and fulfilling work by prioritising employability, entrepreneurship, and inclusion.
Over 240 graduates have already secured employment across industries such as telecommunications, fashion and design, engineering, welding and fabrication, insurance, creative media, technology, hospitality, and interior design.
She said others are launching businesses with seed funding, startup kits, and incubation support, further strengthening Ghana’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.
“Our nation’s future depends on our ability to transform our youth from job seekers into creators and innovators.”
Ms. Constance Elizabeth Swaniker, Founder and President of DTI, said the Institute believed that providing practical, industry-relevant skills was the most direct path to a prosperous Ghana.
She said the internship was more than training, adding it was about instilling confidence, fostering innovation, and proving that with the right skills, the young people could be the architects of a new, industrialised Africa.
She said the PQ Internship was now being delivered across seven centres in Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, and Ho, with a yearly training and transition capacity of 2,000 young graduates the operational foundation for achieving the programmes goal to train and transition 6,000 NEET graduates over three years.
GNA
Edited by Christian Akorlie