The Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) will amend its regulations, by end of this year, to meet current demands in the technical educational sector.
The amendment, COTVET explained, will be aligned with government’s transformational agenda to meet existing demands, guidelines and materials used in teaching and learning in the country’s technical educational sector.
Recent concerns expressed by captains of industry are that graduates from most technical and vocational training institutions across the country do not meet the technical demands and skills requirement of the job.
Companies have had to spend additional money on re-training these graduates and, in some cases, they have had to import skilled labour from neighbouring countries.
But COTVET’s CEO, Dr. Fred Asamoah said such concerns will be addressed when the new law and regulations are passed and enforced
Speaking to the Goldstreet Business at a Consultative Meeting with Stakeholders in Accra, Dr. Asamoah, disclosed that the move is in line with government’s resolve to realign all Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions with the Ministry of Education to revamp the technical education sector.
“We need to amend the existing COTVET laws, which was passed about 12 years ago to align with the country’s current technical educational needs. The 2006 COTVET Act 718 cannot be used in this dispensation; we have to reflect what is happening in the global technical education sector through a new law,” he explained.
Dr. Asamoah indicated, “for Ghana to ensure that the private sector has some kind of comfort with regard to access to a quality technical skilled workforce, emphasis must be placed on effective legislation to meet current demands especially with focus on training materials for teaching and learning.”
He said the new act will take care of service delivery and training modalities, certification including awarding and qualification methods in the TVET sector
The Council disclosed that it will, from this year, begin the establishment of Sector Skills Councils in the TVET sector, with the aim of creating at least 22 bodies by the end of 2019.
“We will start with four bodies this year with support from parliament in passing the bill and hopefully replicate same model for other bodies,” he averred.
The Chairman of AGI’s Construction Sector, Rockson Dogbegah, said it is refreshing that government in refocusing on developing the technical educational sector.
“There is some level of apathy in this country and we seem to be talking too much with little action. COTVET is moving in the right direction and what we want to see is actualization of the ideas which have been discussed today and before,” he said.
The 22 proposed Sector Skills Councils by COTVET, which it hopes to establish by the end of next year, include, Agriculture, Agribusiness and Agro Processing Council, Tourism, Hospitality and Food, Construction, Energy, Mining, Cosmetology, Electronics/Automation and Electrical, Telecom and Metal.
The rest are Textile and Apparel, Information Communication Technology, Logistics and Transportation, Automotive Skills Development, Media and Entertainment, Security and Safety, Banking and Finance, Strategic Manufacturing, Environmental, Sanitation and Waste Recycling, Earthmoving and Infrastructure building, Healthcare, Machine and Equipment Manufacturing and Wood and Forestry.
By Wisdom Jonny-Nuekpe
