OER Grants: Faster AI Training for Ghana’s SMEs

Ghana’s biggest AI skills gap isn’t talent—it’s training materials that are easy to access, easy to reuse, and actually fit local realities. That’s why the first UNESCO‑UNEVOC Global OER Grant Programme matters more than it might sound at first glance. When international bodies fund open educational resources (OER), they’re not just paying for content—they’re funding a faster path to practical digital skills.

And for this series—“Sɛnea AI Reboa Adwumakuo Ketewa (SMEs) Wɔ Ghana”—that’s the real story: SMEs don’t need abstract AI theory. They need hands-on learning that helps them write proposals and reports faster, manage customer communication, and keep accounts clean without hiring a big team.

This post breaks down what the UNESCO‑UNEVOC OER grant direction signals, how it connects to AI and digital skills training in Ghana, and what SMEs, training providers, and policy actors can do now to benefit.

What the UNESCO‑UNEVOC Global OER Grant signals

The core idea is simple: global grants are being aimed at building and sharing open learning materials for skills training. In practice, this pushes training institutions to publish resources that others can legally reuse, adapt, translate, and improve.

That matters because closed training content creates two predictable problems:

• High cost per learner (every institution rebuilds the same slides, worksheets, and exercises)
• Slow local adaptation (materials stay generic, even when learners need Ghana-specific examples)

OER flips both. If one strong training centre develops a solid module—say, “Using AI to draft customer responses for WhatsApp-based sales”—another centre can reuse it, localize it, and deliver it next week.

OER isn’t “free PDFs”—it’s reusable training infrastructure

People hear “open resources” and think of random documents online. That’s not what serious OER work looks like.

High-quality OER for TVET and digital skills usually includes:

• Facilitator guides (how to teach it)
• Learner worksheets and tasks (how to practice it)
• Assessments and rubrics (how to check skill, not memorization)
• Editable files (so you can adapt, not just download)
• Licensing that permits reuse (so institutions aren’t legally stuck)

For AI training in Ghana, this is the difference between “we ran a one-off AI workshop” and “we can train 500 learners across regions using the same proven materials.”

Why OER is a practical win for AI skills in Ghana

If you care about AI in education or workforce training, OER solves a very specific bottleneck: scale.

Most AI training programs struggle when they try to move from a pilot group to many cohorts. Trainers burn out rewriting content, learners get inconsistent lessons, and quality drops.

OER-based training systems scale better because they standardize what should be consistent and leave room to localize what should be local.

Where Ghana feels the pain: consistency and context

I’ve found that many “AI for business” courses fail for two reasons:

1. They assume stable internet and modern laptops, then collapse in real classrooms
2. They use foreign business examples, so learners don’t see the immediate relevance

OER grants, when used well, encourage institutions to produce materials that can be:

• Delivered in low-bandwidth settings (offline-first PDFs, local servers, phone-friendly formats)
• Updated quickly (AI tools change fast; training must keep up)
• Localized (Twi/Ga/Ewe support, Ghanaian SME scenarios, local regulatory context)

The fastest impact area: AI for everyday SME tasks

For SMEs, “AI training” shouldn’t start with machine learning math. It should start with workflows:

• Writing and editing business documents (letters, proposals, policies)
• Customer messaging and follow-ups (polite, consistent replies)
• Basic bookkeeping and stock summaries (cleaner records, fewer mistakes)
• Simple analysis (sales trends, best-selling items, demand patterns)

OER makes it far easier for training providers to publish step-by-step task lessons that SMEs can use immediately.

How SMEs in Ghana can benefit—without waiting for big policy changes

Most SME owners will never apply for an international grant. That’s normal. The win is indirect: you benefit when local institutions build open, reusable training that reaches you cheaply.

Here’s how to position your SME to take advantage as these OER initiatives grow.

1. Ask training providers one question: “Can I keep the materials?”

If you pay for a workshop and leave with nothing reusable, the value fades fast.

Instead, ask for:

• A reusable handbook (editable templates preferred)
• Practical checklists (customer service scripts, invoice formats)
• A short practice plan your staff can repeat weekly

Training that aligns with OER principles is more likely to provide take-home assets that continue working after the facilitator leaves.

2. Build a small “AI playbook” for your business

A simple internal playbook beats motivation.

Start with 5 pages:

1. Approved brand tone for customer replies (friendly, firm, clear)
2. Standard prompts for drafting quotes/invoices/receipts notes
3. A weekly accounting routine (capture, categorize, reconcile)
4. A customer follow-up schedule (after purchase, after complaint)
5. A list of tasks AI is allowed to help with—and tasks it must not touch

This is exactly the type of document that OER-trained staff can create quickly.

3. Use AI as a junior assistant, not a decision-maker

A lot of AI harm in small businesses comes from letting tools “decide” things they shouldn’t.

A safer SME rule:

• AI can draft, summarize, translate, format, and suggest.
• Humans approve prices, contracts, customer refunds, and anything legal.

If your staff learns this early, you avoid the most expensive mistakes.

What training institutions and NGOs should build with OER grants

If you’re a TVET institution, NGO, or training provider in Ghana, the opportunity is to create Ghana-ready AI modules that others can reuse.

The best OER outputs are not broad courses. They’re modular, task-based units.

Priority OER modules for “AI ne Adwumafie” in Ghana

If I had to pick a short list that would genuinely move the needle for SMEs within 3–6 months, it would be these:

1. AI for business writing: letters, proposals, SOPs, HR notes
2. AI for customer communication: WhatsApp scripts, complaint handling, FAQs
3. AI for basic bookkeeping: categorizing transactions, narration, simple monthly summaries
4. AI for marketing assets: product descriptions, short promo scripts, content calendars
5. AI safety and verification: fact-checking, avoiding data leaks, handling sensitive info

Each module should include:

• 3 real Ghanaian SME scenarios (retail, services, agribusiness)
• Practice tasks that work on a phone
• A rubric that checks outputs (clarity, accuracy, tone, compliance)

Translate and localize, but don’t overpromise

Local language support is important, but quality matters more than speed.

A good approach:

• Keep technical terms in English where necessary (so learners can search and troubleshoot)
• Localize examples, names, and business situations
• Provide bilingual glossaries for consistent understanding

And be honest about what AI can’t do reliably: it can confidently generate wrong information. So your OER needs a verification habit baked in.

The policy and ecosystem angle: why global partnerships matter

International grant programs influence local AI education in three concrete ways:

1. They reward reuse, so institutions collaborate instead of duplicating work
2. They encourage capacity building, not just one-time workshops
3. They create credibility, which helps attract more partners and local co-funding

Ghana doesn’t need every school or NGO building separate “intro to AI” slides. Ghana needs a shared library of practical, editable, locally tested learning units.

The real value of OER is compounding: one strong module can be reused for years, improved every cohort, and adapted across regions.

That’s how you get national scale without national-level budgets for every single rollout.

People also ask: “Will OER replace paid training?”

No. OER changes what people pay for.

SMEs will still pay for:

• Facilitation and coaching
• Context-specific setup (your tools, your workflows)
• Assessment and certification
• Change management (getting staff to actually use the new system)

OER simply ensures the baseline materials don’t keep getting rebuilt from scratch.

People also ask: “Can SMEs use OER directly without a trainer?”

Some can. Most won’t.

The best model for Ghana is blended:

• OER for self-study and repetition
• Short instructor-led sessions for practice and correction
• Peer groups (SME associations) to share templates and lessons learned

Next steps for SMEs and training leaders in Ghana

If you run an SME, your practical next step is to pick one workflow and train your staff on it using repeatable materials. Don’t start with ten tools. Start with one routine you can measure—like reducing the time to produce quotes or improving response time to customer messages.

If you run a training program, build one OER module that’s truly reusable: editable files, clear facilitator notes, local case studies, and an assessment rubric. Make it easy for another trainer in a different region to deliver it without guessing.

This is where the UNESCO‑UNEVOC Global OER Grant signal lands for Ghana: open resources are becoming the backbone for scalable digital and AI skills training. The question for 2026 is straightforward—will we keep running isolated workshops, or will we build shared materials that help thousands of SMEs run better businesses?