The government has Since 2017 invested more than GHC6 billion in the technical and vocational education and training sectors.
The investment has resulted in improvements to infrastructure at TVET schools, the provision of state-of-the-art laboratories, the retooling of existing laboratories and workshops, and the provision of modern technology and machines.
Professor Kingsley Nyarko, Deputy Minister of Education in charge of TVET, made this known at the annual Ghana National Union of Technical Students Education Summit and TVET Expo in Accra.
He reported that enrolment in TVET institutions had surpassed 100,000 students, with an estimated 60,000 students enrolled in the 2023-24 academic year.
The summit is on the theme “Transforming Ghana: The Role of TVET for Sustainable Economic Growth and Decent Job Creation.”
The Deputy Minister said the country would continue to prioritise education as the most crucial factor in national development.
“What will be the value of education if it does not improve our societies, make them functional, address problems, help us to survive and thrive, and adapt to new challenges,” he said.
Prof. Nyarko noted that nations that have developed and continue to progress and prosper are those that had prioritised education and made industrialization a core component of development.
Industrialization, he stated, required that, in addition to producing a knowledge society, the skill development of the citizenry was critical to sustaining economies and making nations prosperous and progressive.
“Education that produces only hard skills is not very relevant in this globally changing world; what is needed is education that can promote generic or transferable skills that can be the agents of transformation,” he said.
Prof. Nyarko said the country needed to provide students with lifelong learning to develop a broad mindset to establish enterprises rather than being in paid employment.
He encouraged the students to be steadfast in their disciplines, saying, “You only have to be diligent, resilient, focused, and committed to your studies, to be an asset to your family, society, and country.”
Research indicates that TVET graduates have built a lot more SMEs as compared to general education graduates.
Dr Fred Kyei Asamoah, Director General, Commission for TVET, underscored the importance of technical and vocational training in developing the manpower for development.
He said the government would continue to work to increase the number of students in TVET to provide available jobs to the teeming youth.
Mr Abdul Aziz Abinye, President of the Ghana National Union of Technical Students, commended the government for investing in TVET.
He pledged to lead discussions to explore innovative solutions to harness the full potential of TVET.
GNA