COTVET holds consultative meeting to curb unemployment

The Council for Technical and Vocational Education Training (COTVET) in partnership with the British Council on Thursday held a consultative meeting to deliberate on measures to help solve unemployment among youth.

The meeting was also held to encourage the youth on the need to develop interest in Technical and Vocational Training as this would help them acquire jobs with ease after school.

It was organised by COTVET with sponsorship from the British Council.

Mr Samuel Gyedu Brefo, Project Delivering Manager for I-Work, said getting an education and a job after school is a challenge for many in the country, hence the need to equip the youth with the requisite knowledge for them to be competitive on the global market.

He said the I-Work seeks to improve work opportunities and the objective of the project is to provide work opportunities for young people within the Commonwealth, adding that currently the project is being piloted in four Commonwealth countries: Ghana, India, Malasia and South Africa.

“This project seeks to develop a national apprenticeship policy in collaboration with COTVET and also create an opportunity to link up with Technical and Vocational Education Training, (TVET) institutions in the country and training providers in the United Kingdom and other stakeholders,” he said.

Mr Brefo said nine different ministries in the country are practising TVET and the national apprenticeship policy is relevant to employees and employers as it would help will help solve related employment challenges.

Mr Alan Rutt, Country Director, British Council, said the dialogue would create a policy for TVET to strengthen institutions and inform governmental policies on apprenticeship as well as create relationships and partnerships with relevant training institutions in the country.

“We are doing this in partnership with the Ministry of Education, COTVET and TVET representatives to help facilitate the project,” he said.

He said this would help Ghanaian institutions to benefit from well-experienced experts from the UK and help do away with the trend where children are made to go through tertiary levels without acquiring vital basic skills.

“Studying TVET subjects would make many technical experts in a field but the challenge is making people understand the importance of technical and vocational jobs,” he added.

Dr Charles Amoatey, National Consultant for Policy Development, said this apprenticeship policy is meant to harmonise on apprenticeship programmes in the country and ensure that all key stakeholders buy into the policy.

He said apprenticeship has been limited to the informal sector and young graduates lack needed skills after school; such apprenticeship is relevant to the formal and the informal sector.

Dr Amoatey said areas to address includes a national consensus on the perception of apprenticeship; whom to cover, the institutional arrangement, the role of employers and training institution amongst others.