By Florence Afriyie Mensah
Kumasi, May 27, GNA – The Asantehene, Otufuo Osei Tutu II, has called on the Government to resource the Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED), to deliver on its mandate.
He said resourcing the University was the way to go to encourage creativity and innovation as a means of job creation which is vital to solving the worsening unemployment situation in the country and around the globe.
Speaking at the investiture of Prof. Frederick Kwaku Sarfo as Foundation Vice-Chancellor of AAMUSTED in Kumasi, reiterated the important role Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) plays in the development of Ghana.
Established on August 27, 2020, by an Act of Parliament, Act 1026 (2020), the Kumasi campus of AAMUSTED which was part of the University of Education, Winneba was formally known as the College of Technology Education Kumasi (COLTEK).
The Mampong campus which dedicated to Agricultural education was also known as the College of Agriculture Education (CAGRIC).
Otumfuo commended the Government for upgrading the Kumasi and the Asante Mampong campuses into a full-fledged university after years of advocacy.
The King said the last time he visited the University was in 2005 when he attended the congregation of the then Kumasi campus of University of Education, Winneba.
“On that fateful day, I proposed to the government to consider upgrading this campus to a full-fledged university to train technology, technical, and vocational education teachers to teach in schools and colleges.
I am convinced today, as I was 18 years ago, that TVET is very important for the development of this nation,” he emphasised.
He commended the University’s Council, management, staff, and students as well as President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his government for taking the bold step in establishing AAMUSTED.
He said Prof. Sarfo’s appointment was a vote of confidence in efforts and work in the past and urged him to continue to work even harder.
The Asantehene advised the VC to build the capacity of faculty members, review programmes regularly and engage in joint research as well as working to make programmes, products, and faculty relevant in addressing national and global needs and challenges.
Prof. Sarfo said there was no clear difference between Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and TVET and as a nation, we should work seriously against the tendency to underestimate TVET and STEM.
He said the University was committed to equipping people with the science, art, and craft of teaching TVET because they were confident that the country could achieve quality TVET only when there are quality TVET teachers.
He used the occasion to propose that TVET and STEM should be taught in local languages at the basic levels for better comprehension of pupils at those stages.
GNA