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Design curriculum for training students to meet industrial needs – Prof. Danso

The Acting Dean of the Faculty of Technical Education at the Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneur Development, Professor Humphrey Danso has called on stakeholders in the Technical, Vocational and Education Training (TVET) to collaborate with industry to identify real industrial needs and allow experts to design curriculum for training students to meet those needs.

According to him, the current curriculum did not allow for students to be trained to meet industrial needs of the country, adding that students were rather trained to perform certain tasks which made them become proficient in areas not needed by industry, hence become educated unemployables who become a burden to society.

“TVET needs to focus on using competence-based training and for a start, stakeholders must identify the needs available and engage experts in those areas to design an appropriate curriculum with the necessary courses, and train students on those courses, so that they can fit in when they are done with their training,” he stated.

Professor Danso who was speaking at the 18th Biennial Workshop of the Ghana Science Association held in Koforidua in the Eastern Region, on Friday said that the country would be able to get the needed human resource to drive the development of the country through industry.

The workshop on the theme: “Achieving Ghana Beyond Aid: Positioning TVET to Drive Ghana’s Industralisation in a Post COVID Era” brought together experts in the areas of science and TVET to deliberate on issues bordered in that area and advocate ways to use them to drive the country’s development.

He noted that there was a huge gap between industry and human resource needed, adding it was a major contributor to the country’s underdevelopment.

“For example, in Ghana, stakeholders have realised that in the construction industry, we need professionals with skills in POP, special roofing, tiling, bio-technology, and in the oil industry, we need professionals like wielders to wield under water,” he said, adding the country lacked such skilled professionals, adding, expatriates were imported from other countries were engaged and paid huge sums of dollars which is a loss to the country.

He advocated for the need to train students in such competencies to enable them find industrial solutions to drive the country’s development, adding students could be trained outside the country and brought back to apply their knowledge through building of curriculum and train other students in such areas.

For his part, Engineer Dr Stephen Turkson, in a presentation called on stakeholders in the education sector to ensure a properly trained guidance and counselling unit to guide students on courses they chose.

As part of the programme, exhibitions were held by students of St. Paul’s Technical Institute, Koforidua Technical Institute and the Koforidua Technical University among others who displayed various engineering works and artifacts.

Some awards were presented to four students who participated in Young Achievers Challenge Award and had their articles published in Everyday Science for Schools magazine.

FROM AMA TEKYIWAA AMPADU AGYEMAN, KOFORIDUA

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