Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has launched the new Technical and Vocational Education and Training (Ghana TVET Service).
The programme, he said, is the catalyst for the country’s industrialisation drive and decent job creation.
He disclosed that the four second-cycle TVET Applied Technology High Schools have been designated to offer programmes geared towards creating a career pathway for students.
Students who study TVET could obtain degrees from the Bachelor’s level to the Doctorate with careers based on technical education and rigorous industrial participation.
The courses offered in those TVET institutions would be benchmarked against international best practices.
Vice President Bawumia disclosed this on Tuesday at the launch of the Ghana TVET Service at the Accra Technical Training Centre (ATTC) in Accra.
According to him, from next academic year, junior high school graduates would be placed under the Computerised School Selection Placement System to ensure that TVET students also benefit from the Government’s Free Senior High School Policy.
The Ghana TVET Service will see the 187 TVET institutions spread across 19 ministries come under one umbrella to help revamp and mainstream technical and vocational education and training in the country.
The event, attended by key stakeholders in the TVET sector and diplomatic community, was on the theme: “Stirring Ghana’s industrialisation drive through skill acquisition for national development”.
The government believes TVET is a critical component of the country’s industrialisation agenda as it provides the manpower for practical skills necessary for economic development.
Vice-President Bawumia noted that advanced countries developed their respective economies through human capital and leveraging technology.
The Akufo-Addo-led government, he said, since 2017 had, therefore, undertaken several reforms in the TVET sector as a critical means of rallying the youth towards socio-economic development.
The Vice President was of the view that the world is moving away from certificates to skills development, noting that it was the surest way of increasing return on investment and tackling youth unemployment.
He indicated that Ghana has been endowed with talented youth with skills capable of competing with their peers globally and aiding the acceleration of the national economy.
The government, he said, would create the enabling environment to achieve the set objectives.
Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, the Senior Presidential Advisor, chronicled the TVET education in Ghana, saying that it provided a platform for making TVET a driver of development.
He urged the youth to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) to make headway in life.
With the launch of the Ghana TVET Service, he said, the country was on the path towards economic transformation.
He said the 2022 Budget and Economic Policy of Government had high prospects for developing employable and entrepreneurial skills of the youth.
Madam Mawusi Nudekor Awitey, the Director-General of Technical and Vocational Education and Training, in her welcome remarks, said the government’s TVET transformation agenda was intended to equip students with employable and entrepreneurial skills for the labour market.
She said the Ghana TVET Service would help the nation produce world-class apprentices and ensure TVET became the first point of call in education in Ghana.
GNA