‘TVET graduates need continuous learning’
The immediate past Executive Director of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI), Noble Dr Stephen Bismark Amponsah, has called on technical and vocational education training (TVET) graduates to make continuous learning key in whatever they do.
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That, he said, was to ensure that they were conversant with the current dynamics of the work they did and adopt new trends in order to keep their businesses in operation.
“Entrepreneurship is learnt in school but we should not end there. Continuous learning of new things should be something we should do every now and then. Understanding the current dynamics of the work is very important in keeping what we do in operation,” he told the Daily Graphic shortly after he received a doctorate of business administration (DBA) degree from the Commonwealth University.
Institutions
Noble Dr Amponsah who has two master’s degrees from the University of Cape Coast and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) was also presented with a Master Class Certificate in Leadership and Management by the London Graduate School, at the same ceremony where he received his DBA degree.
He had previously attended the Kikam Technical Institute and Kpando Technical Training Institute, the Takoradi Polytechnic and the Kumasi Advanced Technical Teachers College, among others, before pursuing further studies.
The former NVTI boss said TVET should be synchronised with business since there were only few businesses to absorb TVET graduates in the country.
“So we need to build the capacity of all our youth who go into TVET to begin to understand that I am not getting into TVET because I want someone to employ me. I should think about self-employment. That is the way to go,” he said, adding that “Our economy is not so strong like the developed countries which have strong industries, always looking for people to employ.”
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Knowledge
He said TVET graduates needed the requisite knowledge and competence to start their businesses since people who demanded their services paid for them, thereby enabling them (graduates) to earn some income which could be used to start and expand their businesses.
“We should ensure that every TVET person understands business. We have entrepreneurship but it should not be theoretical. Let’s blend knowledge with competence. The theory should merge with practical.”
Product quality, he said, was important and graduates should also ensure that all they did was of quality since the world today required quality and not substandard products.
Noble Dr Amponsah, who was the Executive Director of the NVTI for 10 years, noted that TVET held the key to the development of the country, and that it was important to retool the training institutions with modern and cutting-edge technological equipment so that graduates could fit into the current world of technology.
He said having worked in the TVET sector for 34 years, there was the need for the country to take a bold decision and revamp the TVET sector for its rapid development.