NVTI, GIZ trains 400 returnees in employable skills

Government has spent 600 million dollars on Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) in the last three and half years, the First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, said on Thursday.

She said such a financial commitment had yielded substantial dividends in the development of infrastructure and human resources in the TVET sector.

Mrs Akufo-Addo said this at the graduation ceremony of trainees of the Migration and Employment Promotion (MEP) Project, on the theme: "Creating Sustainable Livelihoods through TVET".

She commended the graduands for their decision to have a skill rather than "throttle round the globe in search of non-existent greener pastures," adding that that would bring them a lot of benefits.

She described the training as a life changing story for the young men and women who, hitherto, would have been “wallowing under severe maltreatment and living under inhumane conditions in another man’s country.”

The MEP Project is run by the National Vocational and Technical Training Institute (NVTI), in partnership with the German Development Agency (GIZ) in three regions; Greater Accra, Ashanti and Bono.

The German Government committed a total of 821,763.00 Euros, equivalent to 4.5 million Ghana cedis, to the training programme.

It is run through collaboration with the British Council and the National Board for Small Scale Industries, while the NVTI provided hard skills component in eleven skill areas at some private and public vocational training institutions it has accredited.

Mrs Akufo-Addo commended the German Government for being a key partner to Ghana in TVET, adding: “We look forward to more collaborations as we also emulate your model of using TVET as a pivot for industrialisation as part of government’s flagship; One District One Factory programme”.

“This project has shown what we can achieve together as a people, if we believe in our country and work hard to improve the robust systems put in place in the area of Technical and Vocational Education and Training,” the First Lady said.

Mrs Mawusi Nudekor Awity, the Executive Director of the NVTI, said the Accra graduation marked the final of three sets of 400 graduates trained under the Project.

She said it was initiated by the Ghana and German governments in 2018, christened: “Short Term Skills Training for Ghanaians Returning from the Diaspora and Potential Migrants”.

Mrs Awity said the graduates would be presented with start-up tools and kits to enable them to easily ply their skills, which they had acquired within three to eight months of apprenticeship.

She said the NVTI looked forward to greater collaboration with GIZ and other development partners as collective efforts were put together to empower the youth to overcome the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the First Lady has donated hospital equipment to the Legon Hospital and commended the staff for the critical services they were offering to the people.

The Hospital, established in 1957 for only students and staff of the University of Ghana, had over the years extended medical care to all persons in its catchment areas.

The First Lady also called on the chiefs and people of Bawaleshie in the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency and appealed to them to vote for the New Patriotic Party in the December elections.