By: Robert Kwaku Annor
Skills
for Progress Africa (SFPA) has officially launched in Accra, inaugurating its
first cohort of 10 Fellows under the theme ‘Building the Workforce That Will
Build Africa’. The launch, held at the Accra AI Community Centre (AICC), Google Ghana,
saw relevant stakeholders including industry leaders, technical and vocational
education and training (TVET) practitioners, policymakers and
development-sector representatives converge to examine how Africa can better
prepare its technical talent for the demands of industry.
The
fellowship is being established with ELAF Industrial Automation Limited as its
founding technical partner, combining technical training and practical industry
exposure with personal, professional and leadership development.
Speaking
at the launch, Kwame Nyatuame, Executive Director of Skills for Progress Africa
explained that the initiative is designed to bridge the persistent gap between
technical education and industry readiness by developing professionals who are
technically competent, adaptable and equipped to contribute meaningfully to
Africa’s industrial transformation.
He
added that the fellowship was founded on a simple premise that technical
education must translate into workplace competence and opportunity. “Education
without experience is incomplete, and talent without opportunity is a tragedy,”
he said, noting that Skills for Progress Africa (SFPA) would identify promising
technical talent, develop them to high industry standards, expose them to
experienced professionals and connect them to the companies and networks that
can shape their careers.
According to Mr. Nyatuame, the inaugural cohort is the
first step towards a much larger ambition. Skills for Progress Africa plans to
grow from 10 to 10,000 fellows, creating a scalable talent pipeline rather than
a one-off training programme. He therefore called on
industry, educational institutions and development partners to support the
expansion of the model and help create more pathways from technical education
into meaningful employment and enterprise.
Solomon
Bekoe, Managing Director of ELAF Industrial Automation Limited, said the need
for such a bridge was underscored by the growing number of young people
entering technical education alongside persistent challenges in transitioning
from training to productive employment.
He
noted that enrolment in pre-tertiary TVET programmes in Ghana had increased by
almost 130 percent over seven years, while youth unemployment among people aged
15–24 in Greater Accra reached 49.3 percent in the third quarter of 2025. “We
don’t have an unemployment problem. We have a connection problem,” Mr Bekoe
said as he described the disconnect between education and competence,
competence and industry, and industry productivity and youth opportunity.
He
argued that employability and productivity are two sides of the same challenge.
When an organisation cannot find a young professional capable of diagnosing and
resolving a technical fault, he explained, the company faces a productivity
problem; when a graduate cannot demonstrate that capability, the individual
faces an employability problem.
As
SFPA’s founding technical partner, ELAF will provide the Fellows with
structured technical training combining digital learning, AI-supported
simulation and hands-on practical experience through the Festo LX platform.
Mr.
Bekoe also challenged companies hosting Fellows to make workplace attachments
genuinely experiential by giving participants real problems to solve rather
than limiting them to observation. Feedback from industry, he said, should also
be used to continuously strengthen the fellowship’s training model.
Lloyd
Ashley, Managing Director of Niche Cocoa, brought an industry perspective to
the discussion, focusing on engineering culture, resilience and productivity. Drawing
on his own early experience, Mr. Ashley said engineering culture is ultimately
reflected in everyday behaviour, whether people report problems, ask questions,
share knowledge and support younger professionals. He described resilience as
the ability to absorb pressure, adapt to changing circumstances and continue
moving forward, noting that the quality is important not only for individual
engineers but also for the organisations and systems they help build.
On
productivity, Mr Ashley challenged the notion that hard work should be measured
simply by effort or hours spent. Instead, he urged the Fellows to focus on
working smarter by simplifying processes, reducing downtime and using data and
automation to improve efficiency. “I encourage you to build on the foundations
established by those before you but you must also strive to improve upon them,”
he said.
Industry,
academia and policy confront the skills gap
The
launch also featured a panel discussion examining what African industry needs
from the continent’s technical talent. The discussion brought together
perspectives from manufacturing, TVET policy and implementation, and
international labour organisations. Panelists examined the persistent mismatch
between industry’s demand for work-ready graduates and the current alignment of
training programmes and curricula.
They
also considered international approaches to scaling TVET, the role of workplace
learning in developing practical competence, and the uneven availability of
industry partners for technical students outside Ghana’s major urban centres. The
discussion reinforced the need for stronger collaboration among industry,
training institutions, government and development partners to ensure that
technical education responds more directly to the skills required by productive
sectors.
From
10 Fellows to a continental talent pipeline
For
the inaugural Fellows, the programme is already providing a bridge between
classroom knowledge and the realities of industry. Participants highlighted the
opportunity to gain practical technical skills, learn from experienced
professionals, work with industry-standard tools and technologies, and develop
the confidence to apply their knowledge to real-world problems.
As
they progress through the fellowship, the Fellows expect the combination of
technical training, mentorship, workplace exposure and professional development
to strengthen their employability and open pathways into careers where they can
make a meaningful contribution to industry.
With
the inauguration of Cohort 1, the 10 Fellows now begin a structured fellowship
combining ELAF’s technical training with SFPA’s personal, professional and
leadership development programme. The inaugural cohort will also provide an
opportunity to test, measure and refine the fellowship model. Organisers intend
to use evidence from the cohort’s performance and outcomes to guide expansion
to 100 Fellows and, ultimately, 1,000 and beyond.
For
Skills for Progress Africa (SFPA), the objective extends beyond training
individual professionals. It is to help build a deeper pool of technically
capable Africans who can enter industry ready to solve problems, improve
productivity and contribute to the continent’s industrial development.
