The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is optimistic the government’s investment in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) will pay off. His optimism comes on the back of great strides made by some young Ghanaians who represented the nation in a skills competition in Namibia and returned with four medals.
The team paid a courtesy call on the President at Jubilee House on Tuesday to present the two gold and two silver medals from the competition.
In his brief words of commendation to the TVET students, President Akufo-Addo opined that the future of the country was dependent on such people.
He cited countries such as Japan and Germany, which had developed through technical and vocational skills, and charged the TVET students to take their education serious.
“Already, we’re seeing that the investment we’re making in Technical and Vocational Education and Training is going to pay off,” he said.
And continued: “I think we all have been speaking about the importance of TVET education for the country. I am a great believer of taking examples and inspiration from people who have succeeded and done things before.
“You look around in the world and you see the countries and societies that have succeeded and been able to build good standards of living for their people. Countries like Germany, like Japan – look into how they did it and you will see the importance [of TVET] to them…Science and technology, and being able to change the workforce where people can do things with their hands.”
The President observed that the situation in this part of the world was different as the educational system, unfortunately, focuses mainly on white collar jobs, where you have a lot of “people doing big talk,” and have ignored doing creating stuffs with their hands.
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo, professing a solution, recommended for much attention to TVET “to make things for ourselves in Ghana.”
He was, as such, happy with the outcome of the competition in Namibia, and commended the winners and tutors greatly.
According to him, the results go to encourage others that TVET was the way forward in Ghana.
He assured them that the government would do its best to provide the necessary resources to develop the TVET sector.
He acknowledged that coca and the other natural resources of the country are important, but, value is created out of these resources through TVET.
On her part, the Deputy Education Minister in charge of TVET, Gifty Twum Ampofo touted the credentials of the government with regards to investing in TVET.
She opined that TVET has become widely accepted in the educational system of the country, as students do not regard that as a last choice in choosing subjects for their tertiary education.
She lauded the President for taking a bold step to make people appreciate that TVET was not about bread and butter but and engine of growth.
THE COMPETITION
Ghana presented 73 young skilled people for world skills competition in October 2021, in 14 skilled areas.
At the end the first and the second of all these skilled areas went through more rehearsals and training with experts.
After, 17 individuals were sent to Namibia and four medals were won – two gold and two silver.
THE MEDALISTS
Louis Morgan won gold medal in the mechanical engineering contest, Manfugi Agoh from Ho Technical University won a gold medal for web technology.
Ibrahim Adam, a student of Accra Technical University and Deladem Okoh won the two silver.
WORLD SKILLS
WorldSkills Africa 2020-2022 is a series of capacity building workshops with a skills competition that will take place from 28 March to 2 April 2022 in Swakopmund, Namibia.
The programme focuses on collaborative mentorship between WorldSkills International Experts and National Experts (VET teachers/trainers from Africa).
It also focuses on inclusiveness and human-centred design approach.
The programme looks to knowledge exchange on occupational standards, skills training, Test Project development with social values, and skills competition management.
