Nana Menyin Kwofie (left) and Ampah Sakara at the exhibition
Proprietress of Imperial College of Arts (ICA), Nana Menyin Kwofie, has poured cold water on wild assertion that technical and vocational education is for dropouts.
To her, countries that focus on vocational skills are making strides by way of development and have improved the lives of its people.
As a result, she has passionately appealed to government to intensity its support for technical and vocational education in the country.
And using ICA where the focus has been on preparing students for both WASSE, technical and vocational as a classical example, she said the students have embraced the concept and stand the greater chance of entering universities and tertiary institutions to further their vocational programmes than students with only core subjects.
She pointed out that the school’s new vision focuses on other significant courses and programmes to ensure holistic knowledge and skills in beauty therapy, fashion design, graphic design, textile design and food and nutrition.
Nana Menyin started with just six students, but now the Kwabenya-based educational institution can boast of about 40 students with 10 dedicated tutors.
It currently has a boarding facility for its female students and it is on the verge of securing a National Accreditation Board (NAB) backing, having received Ghana Education Service (GES) authorisation.
Speaking at the school’s open day in Accra on Saturday, she said, “Government is doing its part in the educational sector, but we want more attention to be accorded technical and vocational institutions. It is high time we trained students who come out of school and are able to put into practice what they learnt in school.
“That is exactly what we do here; it is not true that institutions like this are for drop outs. As we speak, some of our students have signed contracts to sew uniforms for some schools in the municipality, while others are also into bead making on contract basis for money,” Nana Menyin revealed.
The special guest of honour for the occasion, Kojo Ampah Sahara, NPP Central regional financial secretary, lauded management of the school for the path it has chosen.
“Nana Addo is doing well by giving technical and vocational education attention, that is the way to go and that is the path countries like Malaysia and Singapore have chosen and are doing so well at all fronts,” he stated.