Skills set embedded in TVET key for unemployment jigsaw – Dep. Volta Director

Mrs Perfect Aku Fiakwadzo, Deputy Volta Regional Director of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) says the skills set training in technical and vocation education holds the key for the future of the country as it readily solves the unemployment jigsaw.

She said the country was at the crossroad and TVET had come to offer that respite and urged all stakeholders to support its ideals for national development and growth.

According to the Deputy Director, TVET was the engine to the country’s industrialisation agenda, which demanded that citizens had the practical skills and acumen to champion rapid entrepreneurial growth for economic self-sufficiency.

Mrs Fiakwadzo said this during a presentation of industrial sewing machines with accessories worth GH¢10,000 donated by Mr Samuel Ledo, a philanthropist to the Klefe Technical Institute near Ho, in a brief ceremony.

She said TVET could fill the skills gap in the job market leading to a wide range of career opportunities to facilitate lifelong learning needed for turning the fortunes of the country to a positive desirable drive.

She said the creation of the Ghana TVET Service by an Act of Parliament (ACT 1049) of 2020, was a turning point to help ensure effective service delivery and efficient coordination and management of TVET systems in Ghana.

She said it was intended to coordinate and oversee a TVET system that produced a globally competitive workforce through quality-oriented and demand-driven learning for national development.

Mr Fiakwadzo entreated parents and guardians to avail their wards to enroll in TVET institutes to equip them with the technical and professional skills needed for socioeconomic and industrial development of the country and called for all hands-on to be on deck.

Mr Samuel Ledo, the philanthropist, a native of Klefe, who was redeeming a promise to the Institute through the donation believed the appropriate support from all major actors in the TVET arena could propel its ideals of producing a competitive self-employed workforce for rapid development.

He said the objective of his gesture was to revive patriotism, communal spirit and giving back to society that superintended over one’s growing up processes as a civil responsibility since the government could not shoulder these undertakings alone.

Mr Isaac Yaw Amissah, Principal of the Institute, who received the machines on behalf of the Institute thanked their donor for his kindness and described the gesture as timely, forward looking and knowledge supporting.

He said lack of equipment and infrastructure constituted a major challenge for the 12-year-old Institute with a current population of 65 continuing students and expecting some 120 freshers.

He said the Institute offered TVET courses including Electrical Engineering and Fashion Design technology, Hospitality and Catering Management, Building and Construction and ICT.

The principal said classrooms, workshops and hostel facilities were urgently needed as the school operated from a five-unit classroom block and appealed for support from corporate Ghana, NGOs, and philanthropists to make their dreams become a reality on the community-gifted 27-acre land.

Mr Amissah disclosed the school was started by Westilian Group from Spain with the community temporary assuming custodians until the passage of the Ghana TVET Agency Law under the Integrated Community Centre for Employable Skills (ICCES).

Mr Prosper Anewu, Board Chair of the Institute, said Mr Ledo has demonstrated commitment as a real citizen of the area and entreated others to emulate his example.

He said the challenges of the school are enormous and called on indigenes of the area both home and abroad to extend support towards uplifting the Institute to a desirable level comparable to other endowed schools.