By Dennis Peprah
Odumase Number One (B/R), Aug. 30, GNA – Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) is the surest remedy to tackle the high unemployment rate in the country, Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, has said.
He, therefore, advised parents and guardians to embrace and allow their children and wards to pursue TVET education, so that on completion they could acquire immediate jobs and better their lives.
Mr Baffour-Awuah, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sunyani West constituency, gave the advice at a sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of a 12-unit classroom block for the Sunyani Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Senior High School at Odumase.
The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) is supporting the Midwest Ghana Conference (MWGC) of the SDA church to construct the two-storey building at the cost of more than GhC2 million. It is expected to be completed within eight months.
On completion, the facility will pave way for the Conference to relocate the SHS from the current site, near the Sunyani SDA Hospital to Odumase in the Sunyani West Municipality.
Besides providing immediate jobs, Mr Baffour-Awuah said TVET education held the keys to the nation’s socio-economic development, saying that was among the reasons the government had prioritised it, and thus made it free for students to acquire employable skills training.
He said the formal sector could create employment and absorb about one million people, but with TVET education, graduates could easily be supported to set up their own businesses and employ others too.
Mr Baffour-Awuah said universities and other tertiary institutions churned out between 150,000 and 250,000 graduates every year, saying it was impossible to provide all those graduates with formal sector employment, and which was fueling high graduate and youth unemployment in the country.
He said the government had strengthened the nation’s TVET education, hence the need for parents and guardians to inspire their children and wards to pursue vocational and technical courses in school.
Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister, also advised parents in the area to channel their resources into the education of their children, and asked teachers to do more to help instill discipline among students.
She bemoaned reported incidents of lesbianism, occultism and promiscuity going on in some of the Senior High Schools and warned students against such devilish acts that would ruin their future.
Rather, the Regional Minister entreated students to capitalize on the free Senior High School and TVET education to learn hard to achieve high academic laurels.
Pastor Maxwell Obour Awuah, the President of the MWGC, expressed appreciation to the government for the classroom block project and appealed for the elevation of the school into a boarding status to improve academic performance of students.
GNA