Developing a Sustainable Construction Workforce: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach to Integrating Apprenticeships in Ghana

Sustaining Ghana’s construction workforce requires more than expanding training as it requires integrating apprenticeships into a coherent skills system that links education, industry, and employability. This study tests how institutional integration, practical training, and industry collaboration jointly shape the effectiveness of apprenticeship training as a pathway to a sustainable construction workforce. Using survey data from 212 students, 36 instructors, and 129 industry and policy stakeholders, the study applies Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to validate a latent construct of Effective Apprenticeship Strategies and quantify how its components explain training and workforce outcomes. A first-order measurement SEM was estimated to examine the causal relationships between the latent strategy construct and its observed indicators across the three respondent groups within a single analytical framework. The model shows strong construct validity (CFI = 0.904; RMSEA = 0.032) and reveals that structured workplace learning, institutional support, SME engagement, and technology-oriented training are the most influential components of effective apprenticeship integration, together explaining a substantial proportion of variance in apprenticeship quality and workforce readiness. The results further reveal a highly gender-polarised training pipeline (87.7% of students and 94.4% of instructors are male), indicating that current apprenticeship structures risk constraining Ghana’s future skilled labour supply and undermining long-term workforce sustainability. The study demonstrates that apprenticeship integration is not merely a training reform but a workforce sustainability mechanism. By empirically identifying which integration strategies matter most and showing how gender exclusion limits future labour capacity, the study provides a quantitative basis for redesigning Ghana’s apprenticeship system toward a more inclusive, industry-aligned, and sustainable construction workforce.