Building the capacity of staff, Commission, experts and client institutions is a critical function of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) of Ghana. Apart from their administrative functions at the secretariat of the Commission, frontline staff are involved in supporting the technical work of the Commission. They also facilitate the experts’ work at the various client institutions. Experts of diverse backgrounds most of whom might not have been involved in accreditation and external quality assurance processes before, are engaged by the Commission for its services. Membership of the Commission also changes with time. Likewise, quality assurance managers of client institutions including institutional headship and headship of the internal quality assurance departments of these institutions keep changing with time.

The Commission organizes targeted training for each of these interest groups to sustain an institutional culture of maintaining a common understanding of Commission’s operational environment and requirements. The laws, policies, standards, procedures and guidelines are presented, operational experiences and best practices shared, and operational concerns raised for redress. Some of these concerns have triggered review of important policies, standards, guidelines and procedures. The skills of internal quality assurance officers are enhanced, through such capacity building training workshops, to develop the quality assurance systems of their respective client institutions.

Beyond engagements with these ‘internal’ organs, the Commission also holds special capacity building engagements with the general public and targeted social and professional groups with the purpose of explaining its role as a regulatory body and its relevance as a regulator in the higher education quality assurance space. Such capacity building opportunities also provide the platform for the Commission to demonstrate accountability to the general public which is the whole essence of quality assurance, both internal and external.

The Commission encourages further development of its staff through scholarships for further studies and sponsorships for participation in international and local conferences relevant to its operations as a quality assurance agency. In this regard, the Commission takes advantage of the several capacity building opportunities made available by its local, regional and international networks of quality assurance bodies and higher education institutional partners.