NVTI targets employability rate of 80%

The National Vocational Technical Institute (NVTI) is hopeful that through a series of new measures it will be able to increase the annual employability rate of its trainees -- from 56% currently to 80% in the next five years.

Speaking to the B&FT in interview, Executive Director Eng. Steven B. Amponsah said the institute is reviewing its strategic operations and management at all levels, including the critical role of instructional staff, to make it deliver higher quality human resources.

NVTI was established by government to provide demand-driven employable skills and to enhance the income-generating capacities of basic and secondary school leavers and other such persons through competency-based apprenticeships, master craftsmanship, testing and career development.

Eng. Amponsah told the B&FT the practical skills that the institute gives to students makes them very competent on the job, saying: “There is no firm that will reject artisans from NVTI because of shoddy job”.

He said NVTI trainers are from industry, so they unleash the potential of students and make them very skillful on the job.

“We bring people from industry to train these students, so at the end of the 4-year course they come out with practical skills ready to do everything in their various fields.

“NVTI shows the way and others follow. Some of our artisans are excelling in various industries within and outside Ghana,” he said.

He said it is time for managers of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) to seriously set in motion strategic rethinking processes to provide innovative and effective solutions to the challenges that accompany rising population growth and its attendant graduate unemployment.

The UNESCO in its 2004 Bonn proclamation stated that “Education is the key to development, but TVET is the master key to the socio-economic development of every nation”.

According to Eng. Amponsah, if Ghana is to reap the benefits of this proclamation, then TVET should be viewed differently at all levels; be it political, management, assessment and employment.

“Vocational training is not and should not be seen as a second cycle institution. Indeed, it should serve as a necessary bridge between education and the world of work. If that position is clear in our minds, managers of vocational institutions will not trivialise the management of that transitional process, as expected end-results should be highly proficient professionals poised to deliver in the world of work,” he said.

The NVTI has 34 pilot institutions and 400 affiliates across the country, and according to the Executive Director the institute will work to carry along other institutions to ensure they deliver relevant vocational training for young professionals, current workers and jobseekers -- which should be the core of its skill-delivery mandate.

To carry out its mandate of training the youth and equipping them with skills, the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) has approved a grant of GH¢10million to the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) to train 5,000 unemployed youth in 10 focus areas.

Successful applicants are expected to be trained in dressmaking, plumbing work, welding and fabrication, floral and balloon decorations, general electricals, tiling, aluminum fabrication, hairdressing, computer hardware, and masonry.

Eng. Amponsah said the next action that the institute wants to take is to assist the artisans to form a cooperative and work together, so they can get a stronger voice and feel empowered too.