The Authorities of Technical Universities and Institutes of Technology in Ghana have been enjoined to brave the odds and reshape the technical education in Ghana.
The President of Ghana National Union of Technical Students, GNUTS, Deborah Aboagye-Asante gave the task while declaring open the 28th Annual Residential Delegates Congress of Technical /Vocational students in Cape Coast, hosted by the Cape Coast Technical University.
She challenged the authorities to restructure Technical /Vocational education and start preparing the students for taking greater responsibilities in building the nation.
‘We must as a Country be making concerted efforts to redirect the focus of our technical/vocational students from desperately seeking employment in blue-chip companies, to creating wealth and employment themselves. This should be the target of our nation. Ghana should be working towards turning Technical /Vocational students into employers of labor, rather than job seekers, after graduation’.
‘There must be an establishment of the Entrepreneurship Center in Technical Universities where students are practically engaged in ventures that could guarantee them economic independence after training’.
Deborah opined that for Ghana to play her role on the continent, technical and vocational education must be redefined.
This, she added, would help in creating a body of people ready to demonstrate their technical know-how on the globe and creatively provide solutions to societal challenges.
She said: ‘Technical Universities were established to provide full or part-time courses of instruction/training in technology, applies science, commerce and management and in such other fields of applied learning relevant to the need of the development of Ghana in areas of Industrial and agricultural production and for research in the development and adaptation of techniques as it may from time to time determine.
“How many Technical Universities can really claim to be operating strictly within this mission statement? As a perceptive observer puts it, while traditional universities are gravitating towards the technical, the Technical Universities are gravitating towards the theoretical.”
Asante-Aboagye condemned the situation where graduates acquire bland certificates that do not equip them with life-sustaining skills.
According to her, “Employers, besides the public sector, are rational actors. They want well trained productive graduates that will add values to their enterprise.
“The test of quality, therefore, is in the field, what the employee has to offer. Ordinarily, graduates of Technical/vocational schools should have an unfettered advantage over their counterparts graduates from the traditional university in the private sector because they are supposed to have received technical and vocational training,” She said.
She challenged the authorities to restructure Technical /Vocational education and start preparing the students for taking greater responsibilities in building the nation.
Deborah opined that for Ghana to play her role on the continent, technical and vocational education must be redefined.
This, she added, would help in creating a body of people ready to demonstrate their technical know-how on the globe and creatively provide solutions to societal challenges.