By William Owusu Boateng.
Government continues to make heavy investments into Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET), due to its potential as the gateway to the country’s development.
Deputy Minister of Education in charge of TVET, Mrs Gifty Twum-Ampofo said a great chunk of the “Ghana Beyond Aid” agenda depends on Technical and Vocational Training because no nation can make any meaningful progress without the key involvement of artisans.
Speaking to the Media after touring some TVET Examination Centres in the Greater Accra Region, Mrs Twum- Ampofo said in the light of this, the proposed Jobs and Skills project which has funding support of $200, 000 from the World Bank would soon be rolled out to cater for people with TVET background.
In all, 24,000 candidates with 30% being females are sitting for the 2021 TVET Exammintion being conducted alongside the West African Senior School Certificate Exams.
The centres visited are the Teshie Technical Training Institute and the Tema Technical Institute. When the entourage got to the centers, the candidates were fervently taking the Technical Drawing Paper 1 in a congenial environment.
The Deputy Education Minister, Mrs Gifty Twum-Ampofo encouraged the candidates to take the Examination seriously so as to benefit from the numerous advantages the sector has on offer. Speaking to the media afterwards, Mrs Twum-Ampofo said as part of the agenda to make TVET the fulcrum of the country’s development, the government has established State of the Art Technical Workshops in some Technical Universities and TVET Second Cycle institutions across the country.
“President Akufo-Addo’s Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda is about 95 % dependent on TVET and he has always shown huge commitment to several development of TVET institutions. That huge building at Tema is one of the 13 Workshops built for Technical institutes and 10 for technical universities. They are well furnished with modern equipment to meet the standard of that of Germany, China and Singapore. We want to train the Students with such modern equipment so that when they find themselves outside the shores of Ghana, they will be comfortable,” She stated.
Mrs Twum-Ampofo said preparations are far advanced under the Education Regulatory Act for both TVET students and their counterparts in regular Senior High Schools to take the same core Examination by WAEC from 2022 onwards.
