Mrs Gifty Twum-Ampofo, Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), has encouraged final year students of Technical Institutes writing their final papers to excel in the examination.
She said the government had invested heavily in technical institutes and universities to offer them the best of continuous education and skills training.
Moreover, the government’s vision of making Ghana go beyond aid coupled with its programmes like the One District, One Factory (1D1F), depended about 95 per cent on TVET and its skilled personnel.
“Therefore, behave well and avoid examination malpractices, pass your exams well, I will be waiting to attend your matriculations at the Technical Universities. Afterwards then you take advantage of the 1D1F programme, and work hard to support the economy’s growth to reduce the brain-drain in the country,” she said.
Mrs Twum-Ampofo gave students the advice on Wednesday, when she paid a visit to the examination centres of the Tema Technical Institute and Teshie Technical Training Centre to monitor the conduct of the candidates and the examination environment.
The successful implementation of the 1D1F initiative, through the employable skills of the students in the near future, she said, would help to bridge the youth unemployment gap in the country.
The Deputy Minister said government had completed 59 of the factories under the 1D1F initiative and 150 were at different stages of completion, and urged the students to do well to secure jobs in them to ensure that the government’s efforts to implement the project did not go waste.
Government was putting measures in place under its “Ghana Jobs and Skills,” project with funding of $200 million to train and support the youth to set up their own businesses and employ others, she said.
Mrs Twum-Ampofo cautioned parents who pushed their less brilliant children into TVET with the notion that that was where they belonged to, should desist from it, saying TVET was even more demanding and required the smartest learners to excel.
“Parents, please erase the perception that some of your children are dumb or daft, and so they should enroll in TVET schools, because that is not true! In TVET, we even need the brilliant ones more. In TVET, there are a lot of job opportunities. Students who are in TVET now are the most fortunate.
“As the youth in Ghana are the majority, if we don’t push them hard to get the best out of them for our industries and the economy, then we will get the worst,” she added.
The Deputy Minister said about 24,000 candidates were writing the TVET final examination and a good mentoring and supporting of the students would prepare them adequately for the job market, reduce the unemployment rates and gradually alleviate poverty.
