Ho, March 12 GNA – Mr Dela Gadanku, Chairman, Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Volta, Oti and Eastern Regions, has underscored the importance of Technical, Vocational Education and Training in safeguarding the future of the country’s industries.
“If TVET succeeds, industries will succeed, and Ghana will grow, and should TVET fail, industries will fail, and Ghana will not develop, therefore i beckon all key stakeholders to give flavour to this crucial programme upon which our economic destiny rests,” he stated.
Mr Gadzanku, who was speaking at a round table conference on TVET in Ho, said “as the largest Association of industrial actors, AGI has a stake in the technical empowerment of the youth including women, and will therefore work closely with key stakeholders in the sector to ensure its success”.
He said the broader the base of the technical sector, the more secured the nation’s foundation for economic growth, thus the need for deep commitment and the willpower to channel the resources of the country in ways that would secure its future.
Mr Gadzanku said TVET played a critical role in strengthening industrial and enterprise growth and the economic inflows of the country and provided a strong foundation to the development of small and medium size businesses.
“The introduction of TVET some years ago, was meant to allay the fears of industry (short-falls in task-oriented workforce) by producing highly qualified labour force that matches the needs of industry through competence based training,” he said.
Mr Gadzanku said though artisans played major role in developing the local economies, many sectors of the economy still faced shortfalls in important TVET skills because most artisans were not given the requisite skills training to industrial level specification.
“It is in this regard, that the AGI calls on all stakeholders especially the government to pay greater attention to quality of the technical and vocational training of our youth who form a significant proportion of the total workforce,” he stated.
He said the progressive development of every nation across the globe was strongly anchored on the skills pool of the human capital of those nations, hence the need to place special emphasis on TVET, which aimed at developing the human resources through skills based training.
“The momentum to give further support to TVET gets even stronger in the wake of the governments industrial agenda of a decentralized industrialization programme, and it is also imperative to extend such a policy to TVET, as it will ensure an efficient and equitable resource distribution to provide greater support to the programme and its long term sustainability,” he added
Madam Linda Adjei, Director for Vocational Training for Females (VTF) Programme, a church-based Non-Governmental Organizations said most youth were not interested in TVET because of the perception that people who ventured into it were not academically inclined, and therefore called on all to support the TVET Advocacy Committee in its drive to erase such perception from the society.
She urged government and other stakeholders to give the needed attention to the sector as it was a valuable option that could help in the nation’s industrialization agenda and help provide jobs.
“If we have a very good TVET system we can be assured of a very skilled workforce in the future that would take up the industrialization agenda of the nation and drive the economy,” she said.
Madam Adjei also called on government to promote the TVET qualification framework to attract more people into the sector and also build the capacity of TVET administrators so they could discharge their duties effectively.
The conference dubbed: “The role of TVET in local and rural development,” was organized by VTF Programme in collaboration with National TVET.
It aimed at bringing stakeholders together to reflect and discuss the relevance of TVET as a tool for economic growth and national development and the role the various stakeholders could play to sustain it.
The conference was also to complement government’s effort of drawing attention to the TVET sector as an area of empowering and building the capacities of the youth through skills training so they could enhance their lots to reduce unemployment in the country.
GNA