Young people leaving basic education with no opportunities of continuing on to the next level of education often face a tough choice of what to do next. there are a variety of issues that pose challenges for them, not least being what trajectory to pursue in their quest for skills training for employment. this article examines the precursors to skills choices among young people, using qualitative data from trainees engaging in both informal apprenticeships and formal and vocational training institutions in ghana. the analysis adopted an inductive approach, using a thematic analytical framework to generate insights and uncover the factors that shape them. the findings show that there is interplay of several factors that influence the skills preferences of young people in vocational education, including the family context, socio-cultural environment and the presence of role models within specific trades. the paper concludes that, in harmonising the frontiers of skills training, it is imperative for policy to provide systematic career guidance and counselling paths for trainees in both formal and informal apprenticeship training institutions, in order to enhance their skills choices.

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A major challenge for governments and policy makers around the world, including Ghana, is how to provide retirement incomes that are able to ensure wellbeing in retirement. Without adequate pensions, poverty rates, which are already high among retirees, will be much higher. In the context of a developing country like Ghana where informal social support for the elderly is declining due to the processes of urbanization and migration, formal social security intervention is an indispensable tool for ensuring equitable development and economic growth. The 2014 UN Development Report, for instance, calls for access to basic services, including pensions, in order to improve the capacities of vulnerable population groups, including the elderly, to withstand livelihood shocks. The notions of capability/functionings and conversion factors in Amartya Sen's capability approach have been used in this thesis as a conceptual framework to analyse the effect of incomes, socio-demographic characteristics and conversion factors on health, housing, food, social, financial and overall wellbeing of Ghanaian retirees receiving a social security pension under the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) pension scheme (Act 766, 2008). The study employs a mixed methods research design in a two-phased data collection process. Phase I is a survey of 330 SSNIT retirees. Phase II involved in-depth face-to-face interviews with 12 purposively selected respondents from the sample in phase 1. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed to address three research questions: (1) What is the effect of financial and non-financial factors (retirement income and personal characteristics) on the different dimensions of wellbeing in retirement ?; (2) Is overall wellbeing of retirees better predicted by financial factors than non-financial factors?; and (3) In what ways do personal and environmental characteristics enable retirees to translate their retirement income into achieved functionings in overall wellbeing? It was found that both pension income and total individual income have statistical associations with all dimensions of wellbeing (health, housing, food and social), with the exception of financial wellbeing. The qualitative data points to the key role of money in meeting the desired wellbeing of the respondents. Access to health care, house ownership and non-payment of house rent, family support in cash and kind, healthy food choices, continuous family and community engagements, and financial independence are some additional key drivers that enable the achievement of desired health, housing, food, social and financial wellbeing. iii The analysis shows that while both financial and non-financial factors influence overall wellbeing, the effect of financial factors, measured by their regression coefficients, is bigger than that of any non-financial factor. In effect, income better predicts the overall wellbeing of respondents than non-financial factors. Qualitative interviews with respondents confirm that without sufficient income, ...

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The paper focused on exploring the management of tier 2 of the 3 tier pension scheme in Ghana. The papers focuses on the public sector staff assessment of the extent to which the tier 2 could smoothen their consumption on retirement and the effectiveness of the management of the tier 2. The paper was motivated by the fact that while the tier 1 is a common knowledge to most workers, the tier 2 data are not too obvious. Therefore, it is critical to assess how this could affect workers' perception about the management of the tier 2. The paper employs data from metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in Central Region of Ghana. Pure qualitative research approach was employed within the framework of exploratory design.The paper revealed that the participants perceive that the tier 2 could not contribute significantly to smoothen their future consumption on retirement. It was also found that participants doubt the effectiveness of the tier 2 of the pension scheme due to inadequate information and weaknesses in transparency. The paper concluded that the effectiveness of the Tier 2 pension management is not satisfactory. The paper further revealed that many of the people in the public sector cannot ascertain the true benefit of the Tier 2 scheme on their future pension. It is therefore recommended for government to organise workshops or seminars to educate their employees in the public sector on their pension schemes, identify the prospects and challenges associated with the scheme early enough to assist workers to make informed decisions about their retirement.