Prof. Mark Adom Asamoah
The Government has expressed its resolve to make Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) a priority in the country’s school curriculum given its role in addressing unemployment in the country.
STEM Policy Advisor, Ministry of Education, Prof. Mark Adom Asamoah, who mentioned this at a TVET symposium in Accra, said the government has therefore initiated various policies and programmes aimed at improving TVET institutions as part of its transformation agenda in the last seven years.
That, he said, included the development of new competency based training curricula, investment in TVET infrastructure, TVET teacher training among others.
“To ensure that the country realises the full benefits of TVET, the government has been championing the implementation of Competency Based Training (CBT), which emphasises skills and knowledge required for a particular job or trade,” he noted.
“The globalisation of businesses and the cosmic growth in technology, communication, transport, tourism socio-cultural changes and global economic development have put the TVET sector at the forefront of development needs,” he added.
According to him, a total of 60,481 students have enrolled in various government TVET institutions compared to less than 20,000 students who enrolled prior to the assumption of office of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration in 2017.
Prof. Adom Asamoah also attributed such a sharp increase to the realignment of TVET institutions to the Ministry of Education, consolidation of free TVET for all as well as MyTVET campaign in the 2023/2024 academic year.
He further mentioned that the implementation of the Ghana Jobs and Skills Project is one of the milestones undertaken by the government to reduce unemployment, coupled with the upgrading of 10 technical universities and other technical institutes to provide training in electrical and electronics, engineering, welding, technology among others.
The symposium which brought together scores of stakeholders in the educational sector and other dignitaries, was held on the theme, “Advancing TVET and skills development towards sustainable and decent jobs”.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah