A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of a joint working group on the development of teaching material and a manual for in-service Competency–based Training (CBT) has been signed in Kumasi.
The parties to the MOU are the Ghana Skills Development Initiative, phase three, (GSDI) III, and College of Technology Education (CoLTEK) of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), Kumasi Campus.
It was attended by various partners and stakeholders affiliated with the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector.
They included the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) under Ghana Private Sector Competitiveness Programme (GPSCP), and the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) which is in co-operation with the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET).
As defined in the MoU, GSDI and CoLTEK intend to adapt and develop a manual for in-service CBT delivery training for facilitators, train master trainers for in-service CBT delivery training for facilitators and update in-service school management training manual as well as train master trainers for in-service school management training.
Rev. Fr. Prof. Anthony Afful-Broni, Vice Chancellor of the UEW appealed to foreign partners to help build a world class workshop that could accommodate people from all walks of life for practical training.
“We know you Germans and Swiss that you are practical people and so apart from the training, I am appealing to you to establish world class concrete structures for practical training,” he added.
He was optimistic that by the end of the year, the Kumasi and Mampong Campuses would sever from Winneba to be an autonomous institution to enable them grow and develop deliver, according to the mandate given by the government.
Dr Fred Kyei Asamoah, Executive Director of COTVET, stressed on the importance of TVET on government’s agenda as stated in the State-of-the-Nation address delivered by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, in which he announced the establishment of 10 state-of-the-art TVET centres in 2019.
The Acting Principal of CoLTEK , Prof Frederick Kweku Sarfo, highlighted the role of CoLTEK in the future development of schooling and teaching standards in the TVET sector saying “TVET is no more considered as for weak students, but an integral part of general education.”
Mr Daniel Lauchenauer, Deputy Head of Co-operation, Embassy of Switzerland in Ghana, supported the importance of TVET’s high standard skills training adding that “in order to reach the highest possible level of skills, employability and competitiveness in Ghana, the training of teachers is key.”
Head of TVET Unit, GIZ, Tobias Muehler, indicated their commitment to sustaining the project, saying they would make sure the project lived up to its mandate.
Contributing, Mr Markus Ehman, GSDI team leader, noted that TVET had served a lot of people in Germany and Switzerland and would do all possible to drive it to benefit Ghanaians.
GSDI is a project commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development under the Programme for Sustainable Economic Development (PSED), and co-funded by the European Union under the Ghana Employment and Social Programme (GESP) and the SECO under its GPSCP.
It is implemented by GIZ in collaboration with COTVET and other public stakeholders. Its current phase three started in April 2016 and planned to run until September 2019.
Germany has allocated over 1.5 billion Euros to sustainable development in the country.
From 2015 to 2017, bilateral support for Ghana amounted to 24.1 Million Euros with a focus on good governance, agriculture, sustainable economic development and renewable energy.
FROM KINGSLEY E. HOPE, KUMASI
