Ghanaians must re-think technical education - Okudjeto

Parents and guardians must consider encouraging their wards to take up courses in the technical and vocational institutions to address the deficit in the skills and technology sector of the economy, a Deputy Minister for Education, Hon Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has submitted.

Hon Okudzeto said the development of skills and technology was crucial to the industrial development of every economy; hence Ghanaians must show commitment to technical and vocational education to propel the nation's productivity level.

The Deputy Minister submitted:“We all know how crucial the skills and technology development agenda is to every country's industrial development. It provides the building blocks for the meaningful take off of any revolution by empowering the middle-level manpower to propel productivity levels and quality in the productive sectors of a country. It also provides the know-how to inject efficient production technologies for increased productivity and growth.”

He made these remarks at the launch of a two-day Skills and Technology Fair held in Accra on Tuesday. The Fair, was put together by the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) to showcase the success story of the Skill Development Fund(SDF).

SDF is a competitive and challenge Fund meant to address the skills and technology needs of business enterprises operating in both the formal and the informal sectors of the economy of Ghana.

It is the initiative of the Government of Ghana with financial support of up to 60 million dollars from the World Bank and DANIDA. The Fund gives grants to trade associations, small, medium and large-scale businesses to upgrade the skills of their employees and access innovative technology.

Hon.Okudzeto stressed: “Our attitude toward technical and vocational education has to change as a country.” He lamented the regretted the situation whereby many of the country's polytechnics were going into different areas rather than focusing on their core mandate. For that reason, he noted that government was in the process of converting all the ten polytechnics in the country into universities in order to attract to more students.

Commenting on the Fund, Mr Okudzeto said the SDF had built a foundation to provide avenues for upgrading critical skills, particularly in areas where there were no formal training opportunities in the country.

He encouraged grantees of the Fund to be guided by the spirit of value for money, transparency and accountability in utilising the fund.

“Let us be guided by the objectives of the nation building, since it is only through the development of our respective businesses that we can create jobs and increase the incomes of our workers and build a better Ghana.”

The Project Co-ordinator and Head of the COTVET – Project Support Unit, Mr Mathew Dally, said no nation developed industrially without competent middle-level technical manpower base equipped with requisite skills an innovative technology

According to Mr Dally, the SDF had been working towards the realisation of the government's agenda to find a long- lasting solution to the age- old problem of irrelevant curriculum in the country's training institutions, “a situation which makes skills in our private sectors outmoded, outdated and irrelevant to fast changing industry trend.”

He said the SDF was moving at a top gear and making transformational improvement in the quality and mode of production in the private sector in particular.

However, he maintained that the progress made so far could mean nothing, if the resources being invested by government into the Fund was not used efficiently in order to generate the expected results.