The University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (USTED), formerly Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED), has published the maiden editions of the Journal of Applied Social Sciences and Entrepreneurship Education (JASSEE)and the Journal of Technology Education and Applied Sciences (JTEAS).

The launch marks the university's formal entry into academic publishing.

For a university whose mandate centres on skills training, technical education and entrepreneurship, the move is expected to strengthen research output while creating another platform for Ghanaian academics to publish studies that address local development challenges.

The two online, open-access journals contain eleven research papers by scholars from USTED and partner institutions in Ghana, China, the United Kingdom and Finland. Each paper has been assigned a Crossref Digital Object Identifier (DOI), making the research permanently accessible and citable internationally.

The maiden editions tackle issues affecting education, business, technology and environmental sustainability.

Among the studies are research on teacher professionalism in Ghana, access to primary education in the Bongo District, machine-learning models for credit-risk assessment, public attitudes towards ChatGPT, renewable energy forecasting using artificial intelligence, industrial attachment for art and design students, and the use of gold mine waste as a partial replacement for sand in concrete production.

In his editorial, the Editor-in-Chief of JTEAS, Professor Isaac Boateng, said universities should be judged not only by the graduates they produce but also by the knowledge they generate and its contribution to society. He said the journal aims to publish research that is rigorous, practical and socially relevant, with the ambition of becoming one of Africa's leading journals in technology education and applied sciences.

Editor-in-Chief of JASSEE, Professor Stephen Baffour Adjei, said the journal was founded on a "knowledge for all" philosophy. He said it removes publication fees for authors while ensuring research remains freely accessible, giving African scholars greater opportunities to publish work rooted in local realities and development priorities.

The university says the launch represents an important milestone in strengthening its research profile and expanding opportunities for collaboration between Ghanaian and international researchers.

The two journals are freely available online under an open-access licence, allowing researchers, students, policymakers and the public to access the published studies without subscription fees.