About 500 Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) and other master craft persons have been trained in Precision Quality (PQ) to enhance their businesses.
PQ training is a unique way of training informal sector operators who have immense skills and potential, but require refinement to produce quality products and services.
Under the auspices of the Design and Technology Institute (DTI), a privately accredited Technical and Vocational Education and Training Institute (TVET), the training was aimed at improving their service and product delivery to enhance their income levels to grow the national economy.
The training formed part of DTI’s collaborative strategy to work with stakeholders toward “Transforming youth TVET livelihood for sustainable jobs” project in partnership with Mastercard Foundation’s “Young Africa Works” strategy which seeks to enable 30 million young people, particularly women to access dignified and fulfilling work opportunities by 2030.
Mastercard Foundation works with visionary organisations to enable young people in Africa and in indigenous communities in Canada to access dignified and fulfilling work.
It is one of the largest private foundations in the world with a mission to advance learning and promote financial inclusion to create an inclusive and equitable world.
The beneficiaries, including tailors, hairdressers, welders and fabricators, were taken through several topics including the importance of having vision and mission statements, records keeping, to enhance their businesses.
There was drama interspersed with the training which portrayed the lives, work, successes and failures of master crafts persons, their relationship with customers and how they could enhance it through the application of PQ.
According to the DTI’s Project Coordinator, Kwame Oppong-Peprah, many artisans or SMEs had relegated to the background quality and precision and “DTI is saying that it pays to attach a little quality to the things we do”.
Through the drama series, he said DTI was expected to improve the work skills and practices of 5,000 master crafts persons and 1,000 SMEs.
He observed that most of the master craft persons and SMEs had the hard skills “but let us change our mindsets to precision and quality”.
Mr Oppong-Peprah mentioned that there were many investors looking to engage artisans and SMEs, but the latter were not recognized as they had not even registered their businesses.
He pointed out that the outcome of their earlier training of about 1000 master craft persons and SMEs in 2021 saw 78 per cent of them registering their businesses to grow the national economy as well as enabling them to secure other contracts.
A consultant, Ebenezer Owu-Ewie, told the participants to open accounts with the banks that could easily assist them with loans.
DTI, he said, would do all possible to technically support them with tools and other equipment to improve their businesses if they organised themselves well, by registering their businesses and ensuring precision quality among others.
Mr Eric Boakye Yiadom, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Ghana National Association of Tailors, was full of praise for the organisers for the training which he said had really given them more insights into their businesses.
He was hopeful that the members would live up to expectation to register their companies to contribute to national development.
DTI, a TVET institution for young people, was officially launched in September 2019 to provide the platform for students from various universities, polytechnics, technical and vocational institutions to gain industry experience by working closely with artisans on a factory floor, supported by experienced instructors.
The mission of the institute is to transform skills training for young people in Ghana and across West Africa.
The institute offers scholarships to needy but brilliant students in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation under their Young Africa Works strategy in Ghana.
FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE, KUMASI
