CTVET, GJSP, stakeholders brainstorm job creation in technology space
A workshop has been held at Aburi in the Eastern Region to explore how stakeholders in the technology space can enhance the country’s innovation capacities to create job for the increasing number of unemployed youth.Dubbed “Matchmaking and Information Sharing Workshop”, it assembled the private sector, technology developers and academia to share information on available technologies and their transfer mechanisms to enterprises. The Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) organised the event in collaboration with the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET).
It was held under the Ghana Jobs and Skills Project (GJSP), a World Bank funded initiative that seeks to support skills development and job creation in the country.
Addressing the participants, the Director of Science, Technology and Innovation at the Ministry, Kwamena Quaison, said the MESTI had been tasked to facilitate the technology application under the GJSP.
He said although Ghana had some significant capacity for technology development and application, one of the major policy issues that had existed was the gap between academia and industry.
He said under the windows 3 and 4 of the Ghana Skills Development Fund, substantial funding allocation had been made for the application of Science and Technology by private enterprises to make them competitive.
“If this must be successful, there will be the need to bring the representatives of the private sector and the main technology developers together to share information on available technologies and their transfer mechanisms to enterprises,” he said.
Mr Quaison expressed the hope that the workshop would offer us some training on how to explore the millions of technologies sitting in technology databases for exploitation.
He said he was looking forward to seeing how such efforts could further enhance the ministry’s research and development to generate commercially viable Intellectual properties for job creations.
For his part, the Chief Director of the Ministry, Dr Patrick Nomo, said the MESTI’s mandate to promote technology development and innovation had become pertinent because job creation had become a major Key performance indicator for every economy of the world.
He said the ministry did not directly create employment opportunities, but facilitated their creation of jobs through the technology development and sharing, citing the Fufu powder value chain as an example.
“We know there are significant challenges in our technology and innovation space, but we believe the GJSP has provided us the opportunity to improve Ghana’s technological innovation capacity through a number of sub activities,” he said.
FROM TIMES REPORTER, ABURI
