Create A Link Between TVET Institutions And IDIF Policy- Educationist

An Educationist and Advocate for Entrepreneurship, Technical and Vocational Education, Mr. George Akom has charged the Ministry of Education (MoE), Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry to collaborate for the development of relevant curricula in our Technical and Vocational Education and Training Institutions (TVET) to sustain the One District, One Factory (1D1F) Policy. He averred that, many students who graduated from most TVET institutions found it difficult to get direct employment due to the mismatch in their skills and what the industries require as part of their employment qualifications. He emphasized that this mismatch happens as a result of obsolete and irrelevant curricula in the TVET institutions. He continued that due to the lack of direct employment for students who are churned out from these institutions has given wrong perceptions to parents and prospective students to choose TVET institutions as their best option for their education.  Mr. Akom said that with the TVET Strategic Plan amongst its five (5) domain goals; the human resource and the curricula and delivery system domains should be interfaced with industries, especially the flagship policy of One District, One Factory agenda. “TVET could not be effective without being closely linked with industry”, Mr. Akom said. He iterated that, for the various factories to be established under the 1DIF policy to meet their sufficient, relevant and continuous manpower needs, the policy framework for the various factories and the industries should be linked with TVET institutions to review or design new curricula that could provide relevant knowledge and skills for direct employment. He admonished that the continuous implementation and expansion of 1D1F policy would provide employment opportunities for graduates from the various TVET institutions, thereby reducing the current unemployment situations in Ghana. Mr. Akom addressed that many factories have faced many challenges due to lack of direct raw materials and human resources as they progress from one level to the other. For the sustainability of these factories that would be set in the various regions within the country with regard to their manpower needs would require our educational institutions, especially TVET institutions to design relevant curricula and teaching methodologies that would provide pre-requisite qualifications to students for direct employment. The principle of “Local Content” for employment could be successfully implemented when citizens within the various Regions, Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts are well equipped with the relevant and needed skills to be employed into these factories. “If the citizens do not have the required skills for the various industries set in their localities, there could be ‘labour importation’ which eventually could create conflict between the employers of the factories and the local communities in the implementation of the local content policy”, he stressed. He therefore suggested that the various Community Day Secondary Schools especially those at the remote communities should come out with programmes that could provide entrepreneurial, technical and vocational knowledge and skills to feed the various factories in their catchment areas rather than following the lines of the traditional schools and their programmes. Mr. George Akom who is an Assistant Registrar of the Ghana Technology College-Kumasi Campus opined that, with the Free Senior High School and expected number of students who would graduate, many of them should be advised and directed to pursue technical and vocational programmes to provide them with entrepreneurship, technical and vocational skills for direct employment to reduce the unemployment situations in Ghana. Source :broadcastergh.com /Ayisah Foster