Ghana to Adopt German TVET Model to Spark Industrialisation

Government has expressed its intent to adopt the German model of Technical, Vocational Education Training (TVET) as part of an integrated policy of enriching technical education in the country.

The move is to integrate technical education with modern industrial demands as part of the national industrialisation policy to create employment and stimulate economic growth.

Mrs Barbara Asher Ayisi, Deputy Minister of Education in-charge of Basic Education has said.

The initiative, according to her was critical to enable technical institutions to produce the needed quality manpower for the country.

Mrs Ayisi said this at the launch of a Partnership for Applied Sciences Project (PASS) by the Cape Coast Technical University (CCTU) and the Kumasi Technical University (KTU) in Cape Coast on Monday.

It is being carried out in partnership with three universities of applied sciences in Germany, including Hochshule Bonn Rhein-Sieg, TH Koln University of Applied Sciences and the International Hochshule Bad Honnef-Bonn.

The partnership which involved coaching, mentoring and exchanged programmes formed part of a broader programme to convert the Polytechnics into full-fledged technical universities.

It was on the theme “Strengthening quality project-based teaching, promoting internationalisation and broadening networks – A German-Ghanaian university project”.

According to Mrs Ayisi, the German TVET model was one of the best in the World and that adopting it would consolidate the core mandate of Vocational and Technical institutions of providing quality higher technical and vocational education in the country.

The Deputy Minister who doubles as the Member of Parliament for Cape Coast North entreated the collaborating institutions to effectively embrace the Competence-Based Training (CBT) model being rolled out to all TVET institutions because it was industry-led, demand driven and outcome-based.

“Deeper collaboration with industry to use TVET institutions as training centers for the upgrading and re-training of industry workers is a critical avenue for promoting TVET and has the benefit of making industries value TVET institutions” she said

Mrs Ayisi said as part of efforts to transform the country’s TVET institutions to meet the needs of industries, the government had decided to re-align all aspects of TVET provision under the Ministry of Education.

That, according to her, was geared towards strengthening, improving and revitalizing the skills development sector in the country to contribute meaningfully to industrial development and economic growth through the development of employable skills.

She said government’s decision was based on the fact that TVET was critical to the building a skilled workforce for rapid agricultural, industrial and economic transformation.

She noted that the TVET landscape in the country was very fragmented with negative implications, which affected system governance, development and coordination of TVET for efficiency, quality and relevance.

Processor Jurgen Bode, the Vice President of International Affairs, Hochchule Bonn-Rhein Sieg University charged Technical Universities to stick to the core mandate for which they were established.

He also urged the public tertiary institutions to focus on their unique training programmes to produce graduates for specific sectors for the economy.

Source: GNA