The Minister for Labour, Jobs and Employment, Dr Abdul-Rashid Hassan Pelpuo, has called for an end to the long-standing stigmatisation of Technical and Vocational Education and Train­ing (TVET), describing it as a powerful tool to combat Ghana's growing youth unemployment."We must collectively retire the outdated stigma that has long shadowed TVET," Dr Pelpuo said at the opening of the 2025 DTI Jobs and Opportunities Fair held at the University of Ghana.The two-day event, themed "The Career Expedition: Path­ways, Partnerships, Possibilities - A Mindset Journey Towards Self-Discovery," was organised by the Design and Technology Institute (DTI) in collaboration with Design Precision, under the auspices of the Mastercard Foun­dation.

In his keynote address, Dr Pelpuo emphasised that "skills are not a consolation prize," but key to self-discovery, national devel­opment, and global competitive­ness.

He described the country's unemployment crisis as alarming, noting that between 300,000 and 500,000 young people enter the job market each year-yet nearly 60 per cent remain unemployed or underemployed.He reaffirmed government's commitment to tackling this challenge, with plans to create thousands of jobs by 2028. "This monumental pledge is far more than political rhetoric.

It is a survival pact for our collective future," he stated.Dr Pelpuo commended DTI's dual education model, which blends classroom learning with factory-floor simulations, describ­ing it as a "powerful example of partnership between academia and industry." He pledged the Ministry's support to job creation initiatives through policy reforms and regulatory backing.DTI Founder and President, Ms Constance Elizabeth Swani­ker, described the fair as a "career expedition" rather than just a job placement exercise. "We are not just training young people to join the workforce.