ACCELERATED HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT Policy Context It is recognized that human resource is the key to developing and transforming Ghana from a predominately subsistence agriculture base economy into a predominantly information and knowledge based economy and society. Ghana is however currently facing a human resource problem in technical and managerial skill areas and more so in ICT skills. With only 8.6% of the economically active population which are professional and technical people, with a lower percentage of 0.3% working as managers and administrators it is apparent that, considerable resources and efforts will need to be invested into accelerating the country’s human resource capacity if Ghana is to make any appreciable progress towards the realization of the aspiration of the ICT4AD Vision. Also given that the vast majority of qualified applicants do not have access to higher education, the country is also facing an acute shortage of university and college places --- with less than 30% of qualified applicants gaining admission to the nation’s universities and that this is having an adverse impact on the development of the required critical human resources for facilitating the development of the economy. It is acknowledged that the extent to which Ghana will benefit from the advances and the opportunities of the emerging information age will depend on how the country is capable of developing and harnessing its human resources to initiate, support and maintain its socio-economic development towards an information and knowledge economy. The availability of a diverse pool of technical and managerial skills and professionals in critical skills to design, implement, manage, and use ICT applications and services is most crucial for supporting the development, deployment, exploitation and the application of ICTs for economic and social development. Specifically on ICT related skills, Ghana like most developing countries suffers from a huge shortfall in critical ICT skills and expertise required for the development and support of ICT applications and systems within the public and private sector. The ICT skill shortage has in fact been identified in a recent survey as one of the factors inhibiting the growth of the ICT sector. Furthermore it is acknowledged that without a sustained effort to train workers in key ICT skills, the limited availability of skilled ICT personnel may place an upper limit on development and deployment of ICT within the economy and society. For example, many user-organizations in Ghana have not been able to keep up with the rapid technological developments. In some, there is a lack of expertise to digest new information about these technologies and to integrate them into the existing operations of the organization with minimal disruption. Most organizations in the public and private sector face problems in relation to providing continuous training to the user-staff in the rapidly changing aspects of these technologies. This no doubt makes it difficult for them to take full advantage of these technological advances. Most ICT managers in both public and private sector organizations and establishments cannot keep up with the rapid technological advances. Particular areas include integration of diverse technologies, use of system-development tools, networking, telecommunications and standards. The economy therefore requires a pool of this expertise to support the deployment and exploitation of the technologies and systems within organizational set-ups and as well as support the development of the nation’s information and communications economy and society. 32