Dr Fred Kyei Asamoah, Director General of Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET) has appealed to the private sector and industry to support government to ensure sustainable funding for the TVET sector.
He said the government alone could not shoulder the cost of funding TVET and that the private sector and industry who were beneficiaries of TEVT product must contribute their share to ensure a viable means of financing the programme.
Dr Asamoah made the call at the National TVET EXPO 2022 and Awards and the inauguration of the National Apprenticeship Policy and Skills Gap Analysis in Accra.
The exhibition is intended to provide a platform for multi-sectoral collaboration towards promoting TVET in Ghana and bringing it to the fore in national discussions.
The objective of the TVET Expo is also to promote awareness and interest among various stakeholders about the importance of TVET in Ghana, bring visibility to the key projects being undertaken by the Ministry of Education and the Commission for TEVT in the TEVT space as well as provide a platform for dialogue among key stakeholders on how to enhance TVET delivery in Ghana.
Dr Asamoah also stated that investments in TVET in the past had been extremely low because government had not paid much attention to the sector saying there was no particular focus on TVET even though the country needed more people in the TVET sector to support the growth of the economy.
He said the current huge investments by government in the sector were intended to fill the gaps in terms of lack of equipment, obsolete machines, and training institutions for students.
“In our quest to bridge the gap, we have to do more than the normal…we are hoping that the investments in the sector will even double so that they can catch up with their counterpart in the grammar schools” he added.
Dr Asamoah also explained that to address the issues of skills mismatch between training institutions and the industry the government has conducted a skills gap analysis and audit for priority sectors.
He said the survey was more critical in a time of accelerated technological development when industries globally kept transforming and TVET was at the centre of providing the skills needed for industries, employability, and enhancement of livelihoods.
Mr Samuel Thompson, Policy, and Planning Coordinator, CTVET in his remarks noted that setting up of the Sectors Skills Bodies to help with the generation and upgrading of standards within the Competency-Based Training (CBT) framework was crucial.
He explained the gaps in the curriculum were also being addressed under the Ghana Jobs and Skills Project, which were expected to develop competency-based training packages on the national TVET qualification framework.
