Greater percentage of Biriwa Technical Institute graduates employed - Principal

Eighty-four percent of students who graduated from the Biriwa Technical Institute (BTI), since 2015 to date are gainfully employed and are doing very well.

According to a Students' Tracer Studies (STS) conducted on 466 of the total of 1,554, 36 percent are self-employed, 24 percent are in the private sector, 18 percent furthered their education to tertiary, 16 percent in public employment and only six percent appeared jobless.

Mr Samuel Kwashie Amegbor, the Principal of BTI, described the revelation as an affirmation of the fact that Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) remained the fulcrum of job creation and economic empowerment.

The Principal of BTI was speaking at the school's 10th Graduation and Exhibition ceremony held for 285 graduates on Friday on the theme: “Greening TVET; the role of TVET providers.”

The graduates were drawn from departments including Motor Vehicle Engineering, Wood Construction Technology, Computer hardware Technology, Fashion and Design.

Others are; leather works, refrigeration, and air-conditioning technology, welding and fabrication technology, hospitality and catering management, and electrical engineering technology.

Mr Amegbor said TVET was crucial in addressing skills challenges towards achieving the sustainable development Goals (SDGs).

He was happy about the attention the government was giving to TVET to enhance the building up of a core skilled youth ready for the job market but urged the government to further strengthen the policies and strategies in place to maximize the impact of TVET.

“When you acquire skills, you can create your job, or get a job easily since the world now is a world of skills,” he noted.

While highlighting BTI's commitment to provide demand-driven employable skills, Mr Amegbor announced the Institute's determination to go green as part of efforts to prepare and modify the Institute's awareness, behaviour, attitude, culture, innovation, and creativity.

The move is geared towards ensuring quality classroom and workshop showmanship towards healthier, cleaner, excellent products and services for a more sustainable future.

“We are reworking towards a safe campus and off-campus environment to boost students' academic performance, creativity, and decent school behaviour.

“We want to save energy and money, reduce carbon emissions through tree planting, and reduce water wastage. There would be training workshops on the application of new technology skills needed to work in green jobs to bridge gaps between the institute and industries,” he explained.

Touching on discipline among students, the principal observed the surge in irresponsible parenting, high level of student absenteeism, lack of commitment to studies and engagement in social vices by some students as detrimental to their career progression.

“The increased numbers of students' absenteeism, especially day students and some boarders as well as the irresponsible parenting are impediments to our instructional activities.

Such misdeeds, he indicated if not curbed, would retard, and defeat the rationale behind the implementation of free TVET for all and called for concerted efforts by all stakeholders to remedy the situation.

“This is a concern to us as TVET provider irrespective of the measures in place to keep students in school and gain their full attention for the acquisition of both soft and hard skills required on the job market in recent times,” he indicated.

Dr Michael Boakye-Yiadom, a Research Fellow at the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA), at the University of Cape Coast commended the government for its free TVET policies and urged the Institute to work harder to maintain its academic feat.

Biriwa Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Institute, was established in the year 1974 through a feasibility study undertaken by the National Vocational Institute (NVTI) and the Centre for Research of the University of Cape Coast in response to the growing problem of youth unemployment in the Mfantseman District of the Central Region of Ghana.