TVET gets another boost
The country's technical vocational education and training (TVET) sector yesterday received further boost with the launch of a 16-million euro project to transform the sector.
Advertisement
The three-year eight months initiative - EU-Ghana Pact for Skills: Support for the Transformation of the TVET System (STTSG), is a partnership between the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Union in cooperation with the Government of Ghana.
It is being implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in cooperation with the Commission for TVET, the Ghana TVET Service and other public and private partners.
Capacities
The project, among other things, is to strengthen the capacities of state actors for TVET reform.
It will also improve the competencies of TVET personnel to apply competency-based training (CBT), enhance the integration of the private sector into the TVET system, ensure the availability of vocational schools offering training courses in the green sector and support the digital transformation of the TVET system.
The BMZ is financing the project with 10 million euros while the EU is co-financing with six million euros.
Over the years, the GIZ has supported reform processes through the Ghana Skills Development Initiative (GSDI). The STTSG project is a continuation of the support to the government in this regard.
The logo for the project was unveiled while the EU Ambassador to Ghana, Irchad Razaaly, and the Country Director of GIZ Ghana, Regina Bauerochse Barbosa, signed an agreement to that effect.
Launching the project, the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, said he was excited about the project which was in line with the government’s agenda to transform TVET.
According to him, the government was making a great stride in the transformation journey, adding that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was a TVET enthusiast and advocate.
Relevance
“The relevance of what we are doing is when the intended purpose manifests,” he emphasises and added that “so we can talk about TVET transformation and all that we want but if we don’t get the young men and women with the requisite skills to really do the TVET of the 21st Century, we have done nothing”
Dr Adutwum said the university that would be partnering the GIZ must be fully aware that the initiative was a paradigm shift in the country’s transformational agenda.
The German Ambassador to Ghana, Daniel Krull, commended Dr Adutwum and the TVET team for their tremendous work, success and achievements in recent years.
He said for Ghanaian industries to stay competitive, the quality of the workforce was important and so it was the requisite quality of the vocational training system that would be decisive in realising the country’s ambition to become a more industrialised country.
Mr Razaaly said the support to the project was part of the EU’s efforts to help young Ghanaians to acquire skills.
Continuation
He said the EU-Ghana Pact for Skills was a continuation of the EU’s support and deepening of cooperation with the country, and “that is why we call it EU-Ghana Pact for Skills”
Ms Barbosa, for her part said the new project was a continuation of the successes achieved under the GSDI.
The Director General of the Commission for TVET, Dr Fred Kyei Asamoah, pledged the support of the commission to the project.
The Director General of the Ghana TVET Service, Mawusi N. Awity, lauded GIZ for successfully implementing the GSDI in the country.