Ghana will be world class centre for skills development – President Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said government is working around the clock to make the country a world-class centre for skills development.

He said in that regard, a Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Service would soon be created in a way of restructuring the educational system towards standardizing the nation’s human resources.

President Akufo-Addo who said this in a speech read on his behalf at the 60th Anniversary celebration of Kpando Technical Institute, on the theme “Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET), a Response to the Challenge of Youth Unemployment and Skills for Industrialization”, said a strategic policy document to turn the TVET Council into a Service was before Cabinet for approval.

He said the Ministry of Education together with the Ministry for Science and Technology were working on a refined Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) cluster of courses into the educational stream from the basic level, and also the TVET at all levels.

Mr Isaac Newton Bimpeh, Principal of the Institution, said the School had grown from 70 students on four courses when it was established in 1956, into an Institution equipping thousands with industry-standard skills.

He said the Institution was a support facility to industries in the area, and would soon be synonymous with the fabrication of metallic artifacts, courtesy a Development of Skills and Industry Project, being funded by the African Development Bank.

Mr Bimpeh said key among challenges facing the School were a shortage of critical staff, obsolete machines at the workshops, limited dinning and library space for the 1,500 students, staff accommodation, bad road networks, and unavailability of a science laboratory.