POKS holds graduation for 15 students
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of POKS Vocational Training Institute, Ms Rawlene Pokua Kporvie, has said Technical and Vocational Educational Training (TVET) was not meant for less academically endowed children.
She has, therefore, urged parents and guardians to change the wrong perception they have about TVET and encourage their wards to pursue careers in that sector.
At the maiden graduation ceremony of 15 female students of POKS Vocational Training Institute here, Ms Kporvie stated that TVET had the potential to unlock the unemployment challenges facing the country if the youth were encouraged to acquire practical skills and training to become economically self reliant.
To this end, she advised parents to encourage and invest heavily in their children pursuing technical education so that they could hone in their talents and contribute positively to national development.
Speaking on the theme “Sustaining Economic Freedom through Vocational Training”, Ms Rawlene Kporvie emphasised that the productive capabilities of the youth in skills acquisition and competencies were key to transforming from stagnation to growth and from low-income status to high-income status.
“According to research and my experience as a fashion designer, beginning from the Tema Technical Institute, I will say that technical and vocational education is a major agent for industrial development and social progress for any country,” she said.
Kporvie, therefore, challenged parents to be proud and enthusiastic in announcing the artisanal professions of their children just as they would have done if they were lawyers, doctors, accountants and teachers among other professions.
While acknowledging efforts and commitments to reinforce TVET, she appealed to the government to provide ready soft loans for TVET trainees and apprentices to start their own businesses after completing training programmes.
A Fashion Examiner at the National Vocational and Technical Institute (NVTI), Florence Gadzeti, for her part, said society would have a lot of gains if it encouraged the youth to pursue technical and vocational courses rather than being half educated, idling about, being unpurposeful in life and engaging in social misconducts.
She advised the graduates to build upon their skills and training to cope with the changing times.
The students were taken through a two-year intensive fashion designing programme with English language, Mathematics, basic management skills, financial and time management, savings and basic computer skills.
The institute has since trained over 100 students and 65 others were still pursuing the training.
FROM KEN AFEDZI, LEBANON-ASHAIMAN
