Tanoso (Ash), July 13, GNA – The Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED) will soon introduce a specialised programme in road safety and transportation.
The move is to help equip drivers with the needed skills and expertise to reduce the rampant road crashes and their attendant fatalities and injuries in the country.
As part of that effort, the University has entered into a service level agreement with DriveRide Network, a private entity with a reputation for providing skills training in Business, Applied Science and Arts, and Engineering Education in Ghana, to begin the development of a Driving Science and Skills Management (DSSM) Programme.
The programme would be offered as a short course, intermediate, Diploma, and Advanced Diploma levels, and shall be opened to all drivers but with initial priority on institutional, commercial drivers and private transport operators.
Professor Frederick Kwaku Sarfo, Vice Chancellor of the University speaking at a ceremony to sign the agreement noted that, it was the conviction of the University management that, drivers could acquire the necessary skills like complex cognitive, motor, interpersonal, intrapersonal skills and driving ethics, crucial to bring sanity to the country’s roads via a structured training programme.
Road traffic accidents remain the major public health and development challenges in Ghana, with a total number of 734 dying and 4,025 sustaining varying degrees of injuries as a result in the first quarter of 2022.
According to the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), for the period, the country recorded 3,932 crashes involving 6,587 vehicles and 712 pedestrian knockdowns.
Prof. Sarfo observed that the worsening incidents of accidents on the country’s roads called for a united Ghana to support the government in efforts to curtail the canker.
He assured the public that AAMUSTED had the capacity and capability to make a meaningful contribution to the fight against road accidents in this country and that the University shall not leave any stone unturned in its efforts to achieve that.
Prof. Sarfo encouraged drivers to take advantage of the programme once it was rolled out, to improve their knowledge and skills in driving and the use of the road, stressing that, the country could not continue to underestimate the importance of driving and yet cry for safety on roads.
He challenged DriveRide Network to be fully committed to the collaboration with AAMUSTED, so they could help enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of drivers to save lives and reduce the high cost that resulted from accidents.
As part of the collaboration, Prof. Sarfo received copies of a driving science book from DriveRide Network.
Mr Patrick Andoh, Executive Director of DriveRide Network, expressed happiness that his outfit could enter such collaboration with AAMUSTED to work towards helping to address one of Ghana’s major problems.
He said it would do the citizens a lot of good if they would move beyond complaining about problems in the country and seek solutions.
In his view, the collaboration with AAMUSTED was a move that could greatly help the country, adding that establishing a Centre for Road Safety and Transportation in AAMUSTED could result from the collaboration.
Mr Andoh assured the University that his outfit would do its utmost best to guarantee a flourishing partnership with the University.
Prof. Humphrey Danso, Dean of the Faculty of Technical Education (FTE), giving the background to the service level agreement, indicated that both institutions had been working together for about a year, fashioning out important details about the collaboration.
He said the institutions would work together to develop the curriculum for the DSSM Programme, seek approval from the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET), and look for funding to implement the plans, among other things.
The DSSM Programme would be in the Competency-Based Training Mode.
GNA