The STEM policy advisor at the office of the Minister for Education, Professor Mark Adom-Asamoah, has disclosed that there has been an increase in the number of enrolments in technical and vocational education training across the country.
According to him, the number of students who have enrolled in various TVET programmes at the senior high school level has risen from 20,000 to approximately 150,000.
He disclosed this during the launch of the Ghana Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) report on Monday, April 23, 2024, in Accra at the head office of the Commission of Technical Vocational Education and Training (CTVET) in Accra.
The report, according to his explanation, contained the various measures the government has put in place since 2017 to ensure that the programme keeps moving smoothly and efficiently.
Furthermore, he pointed out that the report proposes to consolidate all TVET training facilities under the Education Ministry, facilitating a more effective and seamless execution of policies.
“So today we launched into existence the Ghana TVET Report, and it contained the things the government has been doing to ensure the policy is running smoothly and effectively since 2017, some of the things the government is doing, including the building of schools, some of the things also including the structures the government has built to help support TVET in Ghana, and it has also changed some of the policies that used to grace TVET in the country. Before now, most of the institutions that ran TVET training were structured under different ministries, but today, as I speak with you, all the institutions have been brought together under the Education Ministry,” Prof. Adom-Asamoah explained.
He said that before the streamlining of TVET activities by the government, many Ghanaians believed that students pursuing technical programmes were less intelligent than those pursuing science and other programmes in SHSs.
“Before now, many people perceived that students or people who went into the study of TVET were people who weren’t that intelligent, but then this government made it known to all that TVET is rather a way of creating jobs for the youths and developing the entire economy into the blessed one we all seek to have, so conclusively, this report contained all that the government has been doing to ensure that the sector is running smoothly since 2017 till date,” he stressed.
CTVET Director General Dr. Fred Kyei Asamoah expressed satisfaction with the commitment of President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo and vice president Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to vocational and technical training, enabling the second launch of the programme in Ghana.
According to him, the whole of Ghana can now attest to the seriousness of the government in creating jobs for the youth of this country, adding that unemployment can become a thing of the past if all support the efforts of the government.
“In 2022, we launched the first TVET report, and after that, we didn’t go to sleep. We’ve worked hard to bring the second report into being, and I believe by the time we launch the tenth edition, there will be massive development all across Ghana. These are our German friends who started TVET in 1978, and every two years they release their reports. Their federal institute of TVET, which in Ghana will represent the commission for TVET, are those we are working hand in hand with to ensure that technical and vocational training keep going regardless.”
He said that very soon the rich and wealthy people in Ghana will be people who have studied technical and vocational training, adding that many Ghanaians now understand the essence of getting trained, even those in the formal sector, who also desire to be trained on something relevant that can fetch them extra income to augment what they receive from formal workplaces.
Dr. Asamoah expressed gratitude to the President of the Republic for bringing such a policy to life and called on Ghanaians to rally behind it by enrolling their wards to help eradicate poverty in Ghana.
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