Pupils of Jack and Jill school, a basic school at Roman Ridge in Accra have paid an educational visit to the Construction Machinery Mechanic Training Institute (CMMTI) at Burma Camp and Opportunities Industrialisation Centre (OIC) at Shiashie both in Accra.
CMMTI is one of the 36 branches of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) offering training in auto-electricals, motor vehicle mechanic and heavy duty while OIC as a Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) centre is providing training centres in Accra, Kumasi and Sekondi /Takoradi.
The visit by the school team, made up of 33 pupils was to afford them the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the real operations and semantics associated with some of the theories and concepts they learn at school.
In separate visits on the same day, two groups of Form Threes of the school, the Home Economics pupils and Pre-Technical pupils visited OIC and CMMTI respectively to acquaint themselves with the practical aspects of some of the subjects they offer at school.
At CMMTI, pupils who study Pre-Technical skills had the opportunity to be briefed on the various trade areas offered by the institute to have first-hand information and to deepen their understanding of some topics and subjects they learn at school.
Briefing the media, the Pre-Technical skills team leader, Mr Victor Gamor said the trip was very necessary to help the pupils gather practical information to back classroom experience and to promote their understanding of the general concepts.
The workshop supervisor of CMMTI, Mr Samuel Anane, welcomed the pupils and urged them to be attentive to the briefings and interactions they would go through so as to gather the relevant information that could help them gain a better insight of the concepts and also to guide them make career decisions at the end of their three-year programme.
He conducted them round some automobile equipment and took them through how fuel and air are burnt in the engine combustion chamber to produce power.
At OIC, the pupils were met on arrival by the Training Manager, Mr Ernest Bobo who introduced them to the centre and briefed them on the various training courses offered by the school.
The pupils, who offer Basic Design Technology which include Home Economics, were taken through cooking-related activities such as preparation, service and washing in addition to fashion during which they learnt how to thread the sewing machine.
Interacting with a few of the pupils after the exercise, they indicated that they now have a real image of some of the tools and equipment and practical hands on experience adding that before the trip they only had a board-drawn pictorial image of some of the things which was not helpful.
BY TIMES REPORTER