COTVET launches institutional production units

The Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) has called for proposals for the Institutional Production Units (IPU) grants, to revamp production units within technical and vocational institutions.

The aim is to strategically position such production units to become business centres, where students can produce marketable quality products for sale to the private sector.

The two-year project, which falls under the Development of Skills for Industry Project, is being managed by the Project Support Unit of COTVET with more than $1.6 million dollars funding from African Development Bank.

Mr Sebastian Deh, Executive Director of COTVET, said under the IPU Grants Scheme 10 technical institutions would be given the opportunity to compete for investment grants from $70,000 to $100,000 to revitalise or set up production units in order to strengthen their technical and productive capacity and promote innovation.

He said the grants would allow them to strengthen their production units to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in production, link production units to market demand to ensure relevance.

It will also increase capacity to generate funds internally to ensure sustainability and also create avenues for work placements and jobs in local communities.

Mr Deh pointed out that the project would offer assistance specifically as incentives for institutions to undertake approved skills development projects, and also support production units which would form the basis for workplace experience learning, and the generation of additional income for the institutions.

He said the grant would be used for the purchase of production equipment and tools, as well as the procurement of inputs for production.

Mr Matthew Dally, Head of COTVET Project Support Unit, said the necessary measures are to ensure that the grant would eventually provide internally generated funds to the technical institutions to sustain their activities for continuous improvements of the projects.

“These grants are meant for transforming the current teaching and learning focused production units into vibrant market oriented businesses capable of producing to meet market demand; thereby becoming self-sustaining while remaining efficient and relevant skills training units,” he said.

The selected technical institutions include Ada Technical Institute, Akwatia Technical Institute, Amankwakrom Technical Institute, Asuansi Technical Institute and Bolgatanga Technical Institute.

The rest are Kpando Technical Institute, Krobea Asante Technical Institute, Nkoranza Technical Institute, Dabokpa Technical Institute and Wa Technical Institute.