Dr. Fred Kyei Asamoah
The Acting Director General of the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET), Dr. Fred Kyei Asamoah says the NPP administration has invested almost $ 1 billion dollars on TVET infrastructure and training alone between 2017 and 2021.
This, according to him, makes it the biggest investment made in the sector by a government since independence.
He said the effort forms part of a five-year strategic plan (2018-2022) to transform the TVET sector nationwide.
Dr. Asamoah at the end of a two-week nationwide tour and monitoring exercise of the ongoing 2021 May/June Certificate II Core Examination, which is administered by the Commission for TVET, said the state of the organisation of the examination across the country was encouraging.
The strategic plan, according to Dr. Asamoah, is also tied to the broader Education Sector Plan (ESP) which is being implemented by the Ministry of Education.
He explained that the government is currently undertaking two major projects to tackle the infrastructure deficit in the various TVET institutions.
These projects, he said, were the “Ghana-China project on the rehabilitation and upgrade of Technical Universities and Technical Institutes” and the “upgrade and modernisation of the TVET system in Ghana.”
“We are upgrading 17 technical and vocational institutes across the country and building an office complex to support the unit responsible for TVET examination. Additionally, infrastructure and equipment are being provided at all technical universities to achieve quality delivery at the tertiary level with industry 4.0 standards,” Dr Asamoah said.
He said that the projects being undertaken are designed to support government’s efforts within the context of the Human Capital Development priorities and to resolve key development challenge of low quality of skills produced by the Technical and Vocational Education and Training subsector in the country.
“The government through the Ministry of Education and the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET) has provided free training for over 17,527 apprentices and master craft persons across the country, which cost about 20 million euros since 2017 to date. An additional 50,000 apprentices will also be trained over the next four years,” he disclosed.
Dr. Asamoah also hinted that the government was also putting up five (5) TVET centres across the country, with the one at Anyinam which cost 5.4 million euros almost 80 per cent complete. The remaining four (4) will be located at Pakyi No. 2, Akomadan, Manso Abore and Assin Jakai.
By Ernest Kofi Adu