Tema, Feb. 24, GNA – Twenty-five military personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) are undergoing electrical training at the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Training Centre at Tema.
The three-day electrical training programme for 20 students and five instructors of the GAF Engineer Training School forms part of the military training to equip the personnel with electrical practical skills.
The personnel would be trained in electric power systems, cable joining and sub-station management which would be based on the use of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system of teaching.
The training involves 30 per cent theoretical and 70 per cent practical training, the ECG and GAFs have established relations where students of engineering at GAFs go through practical teachings from the ECG Training Centre to properly equip them.
Dr George Yaw Marfo, Director ECG Training Centre opening the 2022 GAFs/ECG practical training at Tema urged officers and men of the Ghana Armed Forces to lead the country’s invention drive to accelerate development.
He said it would be beneficial to the country if research and inventions were added to the schedules of the GAF just as it pertained in other countries adding that most inventions that were being used by civilians such as the walkie-talkie, and the Global Positioning System (GPS) were invented by the military.
He said the GAF could be given an additional mandate to research and come out with inventions including electrical inventions on how to harness the country’s abundant solar and biomass to generate renewable energy.
“We acknowledge that the military is one of the disciplined institutions in Ghana, therefore, you must apply the same discipline to engineering to come out with inventions that would benefit all, there is a lot the military can do if the discipline is applied to research,” he stated.
Touching on the training, he said prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ECG Training Centre as part of its corparate social responsibility provided training to the men of the GAF annually for free.
Major Rita Addae Opoku, Chief Instructor for the GAF’s Engineer Training School, told the Ghana News Agency said the soldiers were not only being trained to equip themselves but also to prepare them for what lies ahead of them especially when they go to the mission fields in other countries.
Major Opoku said the school had trained many personnel over the years who continued to contribute their technical skills and knowledge acquired from the school in their various fields.
GNA