Kyirapatre (Ash),– Mr Simon Osei-Mensah, Ashanti Regional Minister, has stressed the need for a conscious national effort to promote Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the country.
He said TVET was a critical component of stirring up the country’s industrialization agenda for decent employment for the citizens.
It is therefore important for a strategic national agenda to prioritize the TVET concept to help make significant industrial and socio-economic gains, as well as create employment opportunities for the majority of the people, as had happened to countries which had already adopted the concept.
Mr Osei-Mensah was speaking at the 17th graduation ceremony of Ramseyer Vocational Technical Institute (RVTI) at Kyirapatre in the Asokwa Municipality.
The ceremony was under the theme, “competency-based training, the surest way of skills acquisition: the youth employment factor”.
Two hundred and fifteen (215) graduates who pursued causes in catering and hospitality technology, fashion design, furniture craft, block laying and concreting, electrical installation, and advance catering for the 2020 and 2021 academic years, were presented with their certificates.
Mr Osei-Mensah urged Ghanaians to disabuse their minds that students who pursued technical and vocational programmes were dull learners, adding that, it was the same misconception people had about polytechnics, which later transformed into technical universities.
At the ceremony, the graduates displayed various products including beads, bags, African wear, and pastries that they have made.
Mr Sampson Damptey Tetey, the Director, Division of Assessment, Accreditation, and Certificate at the TVET Commission, said the country had reached a stage in its developmental agenda where the TVET sector could not be neglected.
He said the current trends of development in the world had given rise to a situation where almost all countries were striving to achieve 21st century currency.
This, he said, was the system where the emphasis was being placed on equipping the youth with competitive skills to achieve the expected human capital for development.
For Ghana to achieve these all-important human resources, Mr Tetey said the TVET institutions in the country must be well equipped with relevant tools, equipment, and consumables, well established learning environment with good infrastructural facilities, well trained and qualified facilitators, a relevant and well-developed curriculum that meets industry standards.
He said as part of the government’s efforts to prepare the youth to acquire these relevant skills and be competitive, the Competency Based Training approach had been adopted as a national policy with legal backing for skills training to all TVET learners.
Rev. S. A. Ayeh-Hanso, the Principal of the Institute, said Competency-Based Training must be a way to acquire skills in aiding the youth to fit into the world of work, adding that the graduation ceremony for the 2020 batch could not be held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said Ramseyer was one of the accredited TVET institutions participating in Ghana’s TVET Voucher Project (a Ghanaian-German Project being sponsored by GIZ).
The Principal said Ramseyer was adjudged the overall best TVET institution for zone B, which comprised Ashanti, Bono, Ahafo, Bono East, Western, and the Western North Regions.
He advised the graduates to take any advantage that may come their way as skilled people, eschew laziness, and work hard as they had been trained.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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