Government is set to establish 20 technical training institutions across the country with the objective of providing the youth with relevant entrepreneurship skills, the Minister of Business Development, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal has disclosed.
Speaking at the fifth Baraka Policy Institute (BPI), a policy think tank’s annual public lectures on Wednesday in Accra, Dr Awal said that the entrepreneurship skills acquisition training institutions had the potential to the reduce poverty level in the country and also foster development.
Dubbed “The Primacy of Technical and Entrepreneurial Training in Ghana’s Industrialisation Quest,” the lecture was also aimed at promoting social justice and national development through research and advocacy.
Dr Awal explained that having knowledge of an academic subject was no longer sufficient to boost the current economic situation, saying that, it was time for Ghanaians to acquire skills and knowledge that would increase their employability to enable them to compete globally.
According to him, the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda could be actualised if only the nation could depend on the youth who had adequate and extra skills to transform raw materials of the country into finished products.
“Since independence, the country has been exporting raw materials such as cocoa and gold, it is now time for the youth to get extra skills that would help to transform these raw materials into finished products,” Dr Awal said.
He indicated that government through the Ministry of Education was creating an ecosystem that could improve the economic and local environment for the youth to take advantage of to reduce unemployment.
Dr Fred Kyei Asamoah, the Executive Director, Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) in his remarks, advised Ghanaians to regard technical and vocational education training (TVET) as solution to the current economic hardship.
Unfortunately, he observed that, unemployment had increased in the country simply because people saw TVET as a second option and not a panacea for national development.
Mr Asamoah expressed regret that the country had given priority to grammar education to the neglect of TVET and blamed parents, educational regulators and government for such unfortunate situation.
Speaking on the benefit of entrepreneurship, the Dean of the Methodist University College, Faculty of Education and Entrepreneurship, Professor Ato Essuman urged the youth to see themselves as agents of change with creative minds to develop the country.
He stated that Ghana had an army of young people that needed to have entrepreneurship education to help them contribute to job creation, economic development and wealth creation.
BY JOYCELINE NATALLY CUDJOE
