WORKSHOP HELD TO HARMONISE CERTIFICATES (PAGE 61, JUNE 21, 2010)

Story: Nana Konadu Agyeman, Koforidua.

A two-day workshop aimed at mapping out strategies to harmonise the fragmentation in certificates being issued by the various technical and vocational training institutes in the country has been held in Koforidua.
The workshop created a platform for stakeholders in the country’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training system (TVET) to find a common curriculum and training for all the technical and vocational institutes.
This is to ensure that certificates being issued by the technical and vocational institutes to their products would conform to the standard qualifications set by the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) for such certificates to be recognised.
The workshop was attended by representatives of the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET), Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, Ghana Institute of Engineers, Ministry of Trade and Industry, as well as the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA).
Others included experts from the Ghana Employers Association, polytechnics, technical schools, the National Business and Technical Education Board (NABTECS).
Currently, due to the different curricula and training offered by the various technical and vocational institutes in the country, some of the certificates being offered by the technical and vocational training schools are recognised while others are not.
The strategic outcome of the workshop will be incorporated in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Support Project (TVETS) being implemented by the COTVET on a pilot basis in three technical institutes in a bid to deliver the new technical and vocational education and training system.
The competency-based training initiative, which is expected to run for a four-year period from April 2007 to March 2011, is currently being implemented at the Accra Polytechnic, the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) and the Accra Technical Training Centre.
Based on the successful outcome of the project, stakeholders will then decide whether to implement the competency-based training in all technical and vocational training schools in the country or not.
The initiative is jointly being financed by the government and the Japanese Government which has provided a $3.4 million grant through the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA), which would provide technical support in the implementation of the project.
In an address at the opening ceremony, the Executive Director of COTVET, Mr Daniel B. Awuah, said to ensure harmonisation and recognition of the certificates being issued by TVETs, COTVET would monitor training offered by all technical institutions to “put sanity in technical training in the country”.
He said technical training institutes that flouted the regulations and standard of training set by the COTVET “will be sanctioned or sued in the law court to serve as a deterrent to others”.
On the new competency-based training (CBT), he said a lot of premium had been placed on certificates, allowing those with such certificates from technical institutes to gain more advantage on the job market at the expense of those “though do not have certificates have the skills and are competent technically due to years of working experience”.
He indicated that 60 per cent of students who had graduated from the junior high school (JHS) could not make it to the senior high schools (SHSs) “not because they are academically weak but there are not many senior high and technical schools to absorb them”.
To this end, he hinted that the government had approved GH¢3 million through the GETFund towards the training of about 5,000 JHS graduates and other people with technical skills to equip them with employable skills and support them to establish themselves after training.
The Director of Statistics, Research and Information Management of the Ministry of Education, Dr Dominic Pealore, expressed the commitment of the ministry to collaborate with stakeholders to champion technical and vocational education in the country.
“The success of this TVETS project will also depend largely on the various Standing Committees formed and the COTVET,” he stated.
He thanked the country’s development partners for their commitment and support to technical and vocation education in the country over the years and expressed the hope that they would continue such good works.