Teachers and heads of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions in the Ashanti Region are calling for a nationwide overhaul in how entrepreneurship is taught, saying the current system is too theoretical and fails to equip students with real business skills.

The educators raised these concerns during a three-day capacity-building workshop organised by the Ashanti Regional TVET Directorate in collaboration with RANT Academy, a UK-based entrepreneurship training institute.

According to the facilitators, entrepreneurship education in Ghana has long remained classroom-bound, with limited opportunities for students to translate theory into practice.

“Initially, we just delivered the theoretical materials as given to us. But now, we’ve come to understand that entrepreneurship is not just about theory. Our learners should be able to set up their own businesses even while in school,” one facilitator said during the workshop.

Another participant described the training as a turning point, adding that it would help them mentor students beyond classroom instruction. “We’ll be introducing project-based learning, where students bring their own ideas and pitch them. This way, they learn by doing and become more confident in their abilities,” she noted.

The Ashanti Regional Director for TVET, Richard Addo-Gyamfi, who visited the training, praised the facilitators for their commitment and described them as key drivers of Ghana’s broader vision to make TVET more practical and results-driven.

“Your success in implementing what you’ve learned here will determine how far this program goes. The Director General is watching closely, and your results will shape the next phase of this initiative,” Mr. Addo-Gyamfi told participants.

RANT Academy’s Founder and Programs Director, Lizzy Lambie, said she was impressed by the enthusiasm of Ghanaian facilitators, noting that their mindset had evolved over the three-day period.

“At the start, many were closed off to new approaches. But by the third day, they were thinking differently — more creatively and more openly,” she observed.

The academy’s Director of Operations, Paul Lambie, added that the program aimed to build both hard and soft skills among facilitators, enabling them to become job creators themselves. “We’re equipping facilitators with skills that make them employable and confident enough to start their own ventures,” he said.

The Administrator at the Ashanti Regional TVET Directorate, Linda Agyei, explained that the initiative aligns with the Directorate’s goal of making vocational education more self-sustaining. As part of the workshop, facilitators visited selected TVET institutions to sensitise students and principals about the formation of entrepreneurship clubs.

The first batch of trained facilitators is expected to establish these clubs across their institutions within the next four months, targeting final-year students ahead of their completion in mid-2026.

The grand launch of the initiative is scheduled for January 12, 2026, in the Ashanti Region, where outcomes of the pilot phase will be unveiled.