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September102021

Deputy Education Minister, DG of CTVET tour TVET institutions

The Deputy Minister for Education in charge of TVET Hon. Gifty Twum Ampofo and the Director General of CTVET, Dr. Fred Kyei Asamoah have been touring selected technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions which are serving as centers for the ongoing 2021 May/June Certificate II Core Exams.

Students in TVET institutions who started writing their May/June Certificate II Core Exams from 6^th September, 2021 are expected to complete on 13^th September, 2021.

Speaking to the media, Hon. Gifty Twum Ampofo indicated that “this assessment has been designed to ensure that students’ transition to the world of work or pursuit of higher academic laurels is seamless”. She added that, “government has taken the necessary steps to ensure that their certification is recognized by both industry and institutions of higher learning.”

So far, they have visited the Accra Technical Training Centre at Kokomlemle, Dabokpa Technical Institute, Tamale Technical Institute, Walewale Technical Institute, St. Bernadette, Navrongo Technical Institute and Bolgatanga Technical Institute.

Dr. Fred Kyei Asamoah also indicated that he is happy with the conduct of the exams so far and assured the general public that the Commission has taken enough precautionary steps to ensure that the sanctity and integrity of the examinations is upheld.

May/June Certificate II Core Exams.

The May/June Certificate II Core Exams is administered annually to all eligible TVET learners across the country by the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET).

The subjects which are written include Mathematics, Integrated Science, English Language, Social Studies and Entrepreneurship.

This examination will enable the learners to either progress to Technical Universities (including other Tertiary Institutions/Universities) or transition to the world of work.

Source: www.modernghana.com

September92021

Education Ministry adds 139 Technical & Vocational Schools to Free SHS programme

AdministratorNews

The Ministry of Education has included 139 Technical and Vocational Schools into the Free Senior High School programme, in addition to the 47 already on it. This is aimed at expanding the scope of Technical and Vocational Training and making it more accessible for pupils to enrol.

The National Coordinator for the Computerized School Selection Placement System, Mark Sasu Mensah, revealed this at a Pilot Training at Effiduase in the Eastern Region on the Computerized School Selection and Placement System, CSSPS for parents, teachers and pupils in the New Juaben North Municipality.

He indicated that 10 districts have been selected in the country for the pilot training to help resolve some of the challenges that come with Senior High Schools Selection.

The New Juaben North Municipal Education Director, Beverly Dansoa Bartels, was happy that the programme will enlighten the participants on how to select their SHS and advised parents to collaborate with the teachers of their children to know their capabilities before selecting schools. Some parents and pupils who participated in the training shared their views with GBC News, welcoming the opportunity offered them.

In all, 35 schools in the Municipality participated in the programme. Statistics from WAEC show that 539,202 pupils from 18,000 and 13 schools have been registered to write this year’s BECE in November.

Source: www.gbcghanaonline.com

August302021

TVET not for dull students — Dep. Education Minister

AdministratorNews

The Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET), Mrs Gifty Twum-Ampofo, has urged parents not to stop their wards from pursuing TVET-related courses.

She said the notion that TVET courses were for students who were not academically brilliant was one of the factors that discouraged people from studying those courses at both secondary and tertiary levels.

According to the minister, “TVET is never for the second grade individual, it is never for the people who are not smart.”

Investment

Mrs Twum-Ampofo made the appeal in an interview with the Daily Graphic when the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education toured some TVET institutions in the Ashanti Region.

She explained that the investment the government was making in TVET education and the equipment bought to retool the workshops could not be left to people who were not serious to manage.

“TVET is for the people who can manage facilities concerning our lives and these are the first-class students and I am appealing to parents to encourage their children who are smart and wish to do TVET to do so.

“Teachers should also guide our young ones into TVET and by doing so, you reduce poverty to a very large extent and you also reduce youth unemployment,” she said.

Job creation

According to the Deputy Minister, promoting TVET formed part of the government’s agenda of Ghana beyond aid and believed that the products from these TVET institutions would constitute the manpower for the country’s industrialisation agenda.

She said with the kind of equipment at the TVET secondary schools in the country, products from the second cycle institutions could be self-employed and even employ others with their skills.

She said the objective was to equip TVET students with the technical and entrepreneurial skills that could make them self-employed and thereby reducing the rate of employment in the country.

Impression

Mrs Twum-Ampofo was impressed with the effort of the management of the Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED) to increase the number of TVET students and also expand the existing infrastructure to accommodate more students.

She was, particularly, impressed with the well-equipped workshops at the university which, she said, showed the readiness of the university to train the teachers for the TVET schools.

Visit

Led by its chairman, Mr Kwabena Amankwah Asiamah, the committee visited AAMUSTED, Kwadaso Methodist Technical Institute, Kumasi Technical Institute and the Kumasi Technical University where the members were taken round the facilities of the schools.

Source: www.graphic.com.gh

August252021

Parliament’s Select Committee on Education lauds government for huge investments in the Technical Universities

AdministratorNews

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Education has lauded government’s effort in procuring equipment for the various Technical Universities to train students.

According to the Select committee, the evidence on the ground in the pursuit of better Technical and Vocational Education by government is encouraging and should be supported to augment the industrialization drive of the country.

Speaking after a tour of some technical universities, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee, Kwabena Amankwa Asiamah, intimated that government ought to be commended hugely for the interventions in the Technical and Vocational Institutions across the country.

He said the Committee’s happiness stems from the fact that there has been an unprecedented infrastructural support, machinery and equipment installations that have been done on the various campuses of the technical universities.

The chairman said, for government to procure such large number of equipment, some pat on the back is in order.

“This is what we want to see. We want to reduce the unemployment rate within the youth. The teeming youth don’t have jobs because of the concentration on grammar schools.”

At the Cape Coast Technical University, the third institution visited, Mr. Amankwa Asiamah was convinced that now that the country has realized the fact that there should be massive investments in the TVET sector, there should be a conscious effort to make the youth become more innovative and creative so that they could acquire the needed skills from the TVET sector, employ themselves and employ others to totally reduce the unemployment rate.

He specifically asked parents to consider sending their wards to the Technical Universities to learn skills to boost Ghana’s industrialization drive.

“We want parents to depart from the grammar schools and embrace technical and vocational education because it holds the key to the future development of the country.”

Deputy Ranking member of the select committee, Dr. Clement Apak said he’s impressed with government’s continuity policy when it comes to technical and vocational education.

“I think that the decision to convert the polytechnics into Technical Universities initiated by the previous NDC government led by John Dramani Mahama is certainly paying dividends. I am happy because the current government also continued and that’s what we expect in the national interest,” he stated.

Deputy Minister of Education, in charge of TVET, Gifty Twum Ampofo, explained that government was retooling the entire educational sector making TVET a central pillar starting from the basic schools.

The technical institutes at the second cycle level, she said, were having a face-lift and the whole of TVET is being touched by improving infrastructure, building workshops and laboratory for them and retooling the workshops with state-of-the-art equipment.

Director General for Commission of TVET, Dr. Fred Kyei Asamoah Asiamah, talked about the revolution that was currently happening in the TVET sector.

He said even the leading universities don’t have some of the equipment the technical universities now have.

“It is also an appeal that our technical universities and technical institutes are equipped to give them all the skills they need to be able to be successful. You go to the Cape Coast Technical Institute and you realize that they have similar equipment.”

Vice Chancellor of the Cape Coast Technical University, Prof. Joshua Danso Owusu Sekyere was upbeat if government could continue with the progress in the sector and provide more, the Technical Universities would be a great catalyst for the growth of industries in the country.

Source: www.myjoyonline.com

August132021

CTVET BAGS 2ND BEST PERFORMING AGENCY AWARD

AdministratorNews

The Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET) has placed second for the Ministry of Education (MoE) Meritorious Award 2020.

The award was in recognition of CTVET’s outstanding achievement in the implementation of the Ministry’s Roadmap in line with the 2020 Performance Agreement, for all its agencies.

The presentation was made during the mid-year ‘Accounting to the Minister’ and 2020 Performance Evaluation Feedback Forum held for all Agencies under the Ministry.

In his remarks, the Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum (MP), called for collaboration between all Agencies of MoE to ensure the realization of Government ‘s education priorities.

Dr. Adutwum reminded them of the need to identify existing gaps in the education system and devise strategies and innovations to change the paradigm.

Present were the Deputy Minister for Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour; the Chief Director of MoE, Mr. Benjamin K. Gyasi; and all the Heads of Agencies under MoE.

August102021

Government committed to modernising vocational education – Fanteakwa North MP

AdministratorNews

The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, Kwabena Amankwa Asiamah, has said the government continues to spend on the upgrading and modernisation of the country’s vocational education system.

Technical Universities across the country are also being retooled and equipped to drive the government’s industrialisation programme.

This is being spearheaded by the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training.

Mr. Asiamah, the Fanteakwa North MP, noted that the government, through this programme, was committed to training more of the youth to help fulfil its industrialisation agenda.

“It has been clear that the expenditure of the government in TVET is not rogue. It is real,” Mr. Asiamah said.

“The latest machines are being installed and we can see that these machines will help our youth to learn the modern technology and also fit in the modern way of doing things so we can rub shoulders with all other students who are doing technical education in any other country.”

The Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training’s primary responsibility is to regulate, promote and administer technical and vocational education and training for transformation and innovation for sustainable development.

It formulates policies for skills development across pre-tertiary and tertiary education, formal, informal and alternative education, whilst supervising the activities of technical and vocational education and training institutions to meet the requirements of both the formal and informal sectors.

The commission was established by the Education Regulatory Bodies Act 2020 (Act 1023)

Source: www.citinewsroom.com

August92021

More than 17,000 apprentices and master craftsmen trained under TVET project since 2017

AdministratorNews

Director-General of the Commission for TVET, Dr. Fred Kyei Asamoah, says government, through the Ministry of Education, has trained more than 17,527 apprentices and master craftsmen since 2017 across the country.

The Project is a government initiative being implemented by the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, with funding from the German Development Bank.

At a media briefing in Accra, Dr. Asamoah said the training is part of government’s empowerment programme for the youth to contribute to economic development.

He said transforming TVET is to formalise the informal sector to make it globally competitive.

Dr Asamoah was emphatic that, given the needed support and acceptance, the TVET sector stands the chance to accelerate the nation’s economic growth within the shortest time possible.

He was particularly, happy that out of the 17 thousand 527 trainees, 73 per cent were women. This he said, has the potential of increasing the income level of females who are considered to be vulnerable in society.

www.gbcghanaonline.com

Obuasi-SHTS-with-MD-of-Primetime-Ltd.-Mrs-Nana-Akua-Ankomah-Asare

August42021

Obuasi SHTS wins maiden Sci-Tech Innovation Challenge

AdministratorNews

Obuasi SHTS’s Automated Sanitizing Station won ahead of Aggrey Memorial SHS and Prempeh College, who placed second and third respectively, in the maiden edition of Sci-Tech Innovation Challenge.

On Saturday 31^st July, 2021, Primetime Limited, successfully concluded the maiden edition of the Sci-Tech Innovation Challenge, a new programme designed to showcase and challenge Senior High School students to apply the practical aspects of their STEM education.

The competition featured ten schools from across the country, on the theme “Fighting Covid-19 with Innovative Tech Solutions”.

After two days of competition, where the schools had to build their projects from scratch, Obuasi SHTS impressed the panel of judges with their Automated Sanitizing Station to be declared winners. Their winning innovation was a complex system that utilized an ultrasonic sensor, an immersion water pump, an electromagnetic switch and an Arduino to ensure minimal physical contact during sanitizing.

The winners, Obuasi SHTS, accrued 307 points and walked away with a whooping GH₵20,000 for the team (students and teacher), as well as GH₵10,000 worth of science equipment to the school.

For placing second with 293 points, Aggrey Memorial SHS earned GH₵17,000 for the team, and GHC8,000 worth of science equipment to the school. Aggrey Memorial SHS’s innovation was a Health Assistant Robot designed to help deliver drugs and food to Covid-19 patients.

Prempeh College, who were the second runners-up with 290 points, were also awarded GH₵15,000 for the team and GH₵5,000 worth of science equipment to the school. COVSAM: Covid-19 Safety Protocols Station, was the innovation that earned them their slot.

With a berth of innovative ideas, the remaining seven schools each received a consolation prize of GH₵5,000 each with GH₵4,000 going to the team and the school receiving GH₵1,000 worth of science equipment. Ghana Secondary Technical School (GSTS) placed 4^th with 289 points for their Smart Sanitizing Station, using ultrasonic sensors and robotics to automate handwashing and sanitizing.

In 5^th place, Sunyani-based Don Bosco Technical Institute accrued 267 points for their Hand Washing Machine that utilized audio prompts to ensure that Covid protocols were properly ensured.

The only all-girls school to participate, Archbishop Porter Girls’ SHS, placed 6^th with 262 points for “Archumidifier”, a steam humidifier designed to introduce moisture into the atmosphere which prevents the thickening of mucus and helps the cilia to trap the Covid-19 virus.

The team from Wa-based Louis Rutten SHS designed the Covid Protocols Assistant (CPA), another automated comprehensive sanitizing station, to earn 255 points and place 7^th.

Mfantsipim School placed 8^th with 251 points for their e-learning platform named COVINFO. Coming in 9^th, Sekyedumase SHS managed to accrue 240 points for their Temperature Sensor / Automated Door.

In 10^th place, with 231 points, St. Thomas Aquinas SHS designed ‘Cashbot’, an automated money exchange system to reduce physical contact during transactions.

Speaking on behalf of the organisers, the Managing Director of Primetime Limited, Mrs. Nana Akua Ankomah-Asare thanked the sponsors, schools and teachers for helping to make the programme such a success. In her speech, she stated that the organisers hoped that “more institutions will come on board to support the Sci-Tech Fair in the coming years”.

The Sci-Tech Innovation Challenge was introduced after three editions of the Sci-Tech Fair had been held annually as mainly an exhibition platform for scientific and technological innovations from across the country. The Challenge was designed to introduce a competitive element and increase the practical impact of the Sci-Tech Fair.

This year, the Sci-Tech Fair was decoupled from the National Science & Maths Quiz and merged with the Mentorship Sessions to birth the maiden edition of the STEM Festival, a month-long celebration of innovation and science.

The STEM Festival 2021 is proudly sponsored by Absa Bank Ghana Limited, with support from Academic City University College, Junior Camp Ghana, Joy News, Joy Learning and YFM.

Source: www.myjoyonline.com

July292021

WorldSkills Germany supports skill development in Ghana

AdministratorNews, WorldSkills news

WorldSkills Germany, a long-standing WorldSkills Member, have partnered with one of our newest Members, Ghana, to help establish a national WorldSkills movement in the country and contribute to the skills development in Africa.

The fruits of this partnership have been published in a report from WorldSkills Germany, which highlights the ways new Members can be supported, especially in the developing world, and in Africa, which is long underrepresented in the WorldSkills family.

For WorldSkills Germany, their long-term goal is to assist WorldSkills Ghana to create a sustainable, independent, and successful training organization that reflects the uniqueness and opportunities within Ghana.

Working with the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) of Ghana, the three-year programme in the run-up to WorldSkills Shanghai 2022, aims to develop and train both Experts and Competitors, along with training and performance centres, while also developing WorldSkills Ghana as a sustainable National Skills Organization.

The two Members signed an MOU in spring 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to disrupt plans.

Instead, online training platforms became the key. “It was possible to successfully advance the project — albeit at a greatly reduced pace and, in some cases, with simplified content,” says Michael Büchele, Project Manager of WorldSkills Germany.

The programme is financially supported by the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) and led by an experienced team, who were finally able to travel to Ghana in September 2020 and join training sessions in Accra and Kumasi.

Longer-term objectives include setting up a national skills competition, with support from the private sector, as well as forming skills organizing teams who will develop key areas like workshop planning, assessment criteria, and the materials and infrastructure needed for both Competitors and Experts.

To date these skill organizing teams have been set up for 14 skills, with hopes of a first national competition later this year.

Addition support was provided by Alba Losert of WorldSkills Germany who joined the WorldSkills Ghana Secretariat for two months from May to June this year.

For Losert, the aim was to create sustainable structures for Ghana using the available resources, a process that was, she says, as important as the outcome.

“Using the given resources and building something is empowering, fun, context relevant, and most important activates self-agency through thinking, doing, learning together,” she says.

It also became clear on both sides that money was not always needed to create opportunities, as with a project to create a classroom at the Accra Technical Training Centre that used office space donated by the centre’s director and renovated by students.

For WorldSkills Ghana’s Technical Delegate Mamudu Hamidu, the experience of working with WorldSkills Germany was “revealing and shocking” with the realization that while around half of his country’s population was under 30, there was little structure in place to develop their skills.

“Young people’s precious energy is wasted without or with insignificant technical know-how,” he says. “I saw that WorldSkills is the right platform to give the youth and TVET system the positive energy.”

The collaboration between the two Members is already achieving results, especially with the understanding that “Ghana Experts are being marched with German Experts for coaching not according to German specification but what is the available reality in Ghana,” says Hamidu.

Hubert Romer, the Official Delegate of WorldSkills Germany, says: “It is our wish to integrate other nations into this project network with Ghana in order to be able to further use and spread the mutual learning effect.”

Source: www.worldskills.org

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July192021

CTVET ORGANIZES VIRTUAL CONFERENCE TO CELEBRATE WYSD 21

AdministratorNews

The Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET) in partnership with the National Youth Authority (NYA) and the Ghana National Union of Technical Students (GNUTS) has held a virtual conference to mark this year’s World Youth Skills Day (WYSD).

The conference brought together young people, TVET institutions, employers, policy makers and development partners to discuss the need to prepare Ghana’s youth today for the jobs of tomorrow; under the theme ‘Building Youth Skills for Industry Now and Beyond’.

Speaking at the event, the Deputy Minister for Education Hon. Gifty Twum Ampofo said government has put in place policies, strategies and legal frameworks to reform and strengthen TVET systems in the country to make it attractive to the youth and responsive to labour market demands.

She pledged government’s commitment to equipping the youth with employable skills to empower them to contribute meaningfully to the sustainable development of the country and urged “all stakeholders to ensure the continuity of skills development and to introduce training programmes to bridge skills gaps.’’

“Solutions to skills gaps need to be reimagined in a way that considers not only the realities of the present, but also the full range of possibilities for the future,’’ she added.

The Ag. Director General of CTVET Dr. Fred Kyei Asamoah in his welcome address congratulated the youth of Ghana for the incredible ways they continue to cope to bounce back even stronger, in these challenging times.

During a panel discussion, Dr. Asamoah enumerated various initiatives being undertaken by the government in partnership with development partners through CTVET, to prepare the youth for now and the future. These include the Ghana TVET Voucher Project which offers free demand-oriented training to improve access to decent employment; the Jobs and Skills Project which is aimed at providing over 200,000 jobs to Ghanaian youth through skills training.

Others are the establishment of Sector Skills Bodies to ensure that industry is at the centre of skills training and the upgrading and modernization of TVET institutions to improve the quality of TVET delivery.

He said, “post COVID, things are going to be digitized, automated and technological advancement as never seen before is going to happen.” He therefore urged the youth to take advantage of technology to position themselves to be relevant in the emerging jobs economy.

The Ag. CEO of NYA Mr. Nelson Owusu Ansah reiterated the key role of TVET in ensuring decent work, employability and fostering the resilience of young people. He also encouraged the youth to seek and apply themselves to internship opportunities to aid their smooth transition to work.

“It is on the vehicle of TVET that you can really create and predict your future. With TVET, you can predict your own income at the end of the month. If we continue with our traditional system of looking for jobs after school, then we will continue to sing the song of unemployment,’’ he added.

Other panel members were Mr. Kwesi Eyison, Mr. Bright Nkutumi and Ms. Sika Mortoo, with Mr. Albert Opare as the moderator.

BACKGROUND

World Youth Skills Day is celebrated on July 15. This year’s theme was ‘Reimagining Youth Skills Post-Pandemic’, which aimed to celebrate the resilience and creativity of the youth throughout the crisis.

The day also focussed attention on how Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) systems have adapted during COVID-19, participate in the recovery, and imagine priorities needed to be adopted in post-pandemic times.

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News

Deputy Education Minister, DG of CTVET tour TVET institutions

Education Ministry adds 139 Technical & Vocational Schools to Free SHS programme

TVET not for dull students — Dep. Education Minister

Parliament’s Select Committee on Education lauds government for huge investments in the Technical Universities

CTVET BAGS 2ND BEST PERFORMING AGENCY AWARD

Government committed to modernising vocational education – Fanteakwa North MP

More than 17,000 apprentices and master craftsmen trained under TVET project since 2017

Obuasi SHTS wins maiden Sci-Tech Innovation Challenge

WorldSkills Germany supports skill development in Ghana

CTVET ORGANIZES VIRTUAL CONFERENCE TO CELEBRATE WYSD 21

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WorldSkills Ghana National Competition 2021 has been postponed.