1.    BACKGROUND
As a health pandemic, COVID-19 has quickly become an economic and social catastrophe of immense proportion. It has devasted economies around the world leading to unprecedented levels of unemployment and joblessness. 

In Ghana, the measures implemented to contain the spread of the virus brought the economy to a virtual halt. Economic growth for 2020 was a mere 0.4 percent, the lowest growth since 1983. According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) more than 41,000 workers lost their jobs during the lockdown of Accra and Kumasi. Many have remain jobless. 

Just as it has competently dealt with the health aspect of the pandemic, government is determined to address the economic and social consequences of COVID-19. 

In the 2020 Mid-Year Review of Fiscal and Economic Policy and as part of the Obaatanpa Ghana CARES programme, government announced a programme of training and retraining for workers whose jobs have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initiative forms part of the National Unemployment Insurance Scheme (NUIS) announced in the same budget review. When established, the NUIS will in future offer income support to workers who become unemployed.
A key part of the scheme will be systematic training and retraining of the unemployed to enable them regain employment in the shortest possible time. The NUIS will also feature other active labour market programmes including job search assistance.  

Given the severity of the employment impact of COVID-19 government has decided to frontload the training and retraining component of the NUIS and offer affected workers opportunities to enrol in training programmes that will preserve and upgrade their skills.

2.    OBJECTIVE OF THE PROGRAMME:
The objective of the Training/Retraining Programme is to preserve and upgrade human capital of affected workers and to facilitate their re-entry into productive employment at higher levels of performance.

The programme will also help address the pervasive skills/competency gap while ensuring that the unemployed stay connected to the labour market. 

3.    PROGRAMME COVERAGE
The initial phase of the programme will target workers in two main sectors:

• Tourism and Hospitality; and 
• Private Sector Education. 

These sectors have been most affected by the pandemic. As early as April 2020, some 23 percent of workers in the tourism and hospitality sector, had lost their jobs.  

The closure of schools severely affected teachers and other workers of private sector education. Most workers there were not paid for the whole period that the schools were closed. With the opening of the schools, most teachers/workers have been recalled but face reduced working hours.

Some teachers/workers have completely lost their jobs because the schools they were working for have either collapsed or suffered reduced enrolment.

The programme targets the following categories of workers:

• Workers who have lost their employment because of COVID-19;
• Workers who have retained their jobs but working part-time and have time to enroll in a training/retraining programmes; and
• Workers who have retained their jobs but are not working because their businesses have either closed temporarily or have scaled back on activities.

In the medium to long-term, the programme of training and retraining will be extended to all workers in the public and private formal sectors.

4.    NATURE OF TRAINING
The training/retraining is focused on skills upgrading, work ethics, productivity and attitudinal change. It is focused on enhancing workers prospects for re-entry into the labour market at higher levels of productivity or performance. It emphasizes vocational, technical and professional training and retraining. While addressing current employability challenges, a long-term perspective in the design of training modules ensures responsiveness to future skills and labour market needs.

Affected workers who take up the offer have two options. The first option is for workers who have the requirement and capacity to pursue existing academic programmes/courses available in the various training institutions. These existing programmes/courses are adjusted with add-ons that address the issues of work ethics, productivity and attitudinal change. These programmes are of longer durations usually between 6 and 12 months.

The second option is the core competency-based training programmes primarily for workers who do not have the capacity nor the time to pursue long duration academic programmes/courses. By their nature, the competency-based courses are of shorter duration and also have greater practical components.

Training is delivered  through combinations of classroom, virtual/online, and on-the-job training; 
All courses/programmes will not exceed one year.

5.    FUNDING
Government is funding the cost of the training and retraining programme. Government will pay the fees for every worker who, enrol in the programme.

6.    GOVERNING STRUCTURE

The Social Partnership Council (SPC) is the main body that is implementing the training and retraining programme. The Council has appointed a Steering Committee Chaired by the Minister of Finance (MOF), with representatives from the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR), Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Employers Association. The Steering Committee further appointed nine-member Technical Committee drawn from MoF, MELR, TUC and GEA. The Technical Committee is in charge of actual implementation of the programme.