TVET GRADUATES URGED TO CREATE JOBS

 By: Kate Okyere

Prof. Atepor (Rector of Cape Coast Polytechnic)

The Rector of Cape Coast Polytechnic, Professor Atepor, has noted that entrepreneurship and TVET education provides the foundation of national self-reliance.

He added that it help to manufacture indigenous substitutes to imported products which reduce the dependence on foreign countries and cited examples as Taiwan and South Korea.
He was delivering the 1st Convocation lecture of the Polytechnic of Sokoto State, Nigeria on the theme: Entrepreneurship Education in TVET institutions for Sustainable Development: Challenges and prospects.

He alludes, that there is a possibility of importing goods and services to earn foreign exchange for the country. Hence, the import substitution and export promotion ensure economic independence and the country becomes self-reliant or less reliant on imports and also TVET is considered as economic agents since they design and develop machinery to suit the local production requirement.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    He disclosed that, informal systems of passing knowledge and skills from one generation to another always have been part of Africa’s civilization. The formal education system also has largely ignored the teaching of traditional skills and a diverse TVET system should be able to accommodate structured vocational training programmes in the areas such as handcrafts and pottery, baking, painting, carpentry, tailoring, basketry and leatherwork.

Professor Atepor lamented that Technical and vocational education training (TVET) has low prestige in the eyes of the public.

                                  

 TVET is concerned with acquisition of knowledge and skills for the world work. It is an education, training or learning activity which provides knowledge, skills and attitudes relevant for self-employment. It’s also describes all kinds of formal, non-formal and informal training and learning in wherever it occurs, being it institutes, schools, training centers or in the workplace of production. 

Prof. Atepor, Rector of Cape Coast polytechnic, demonstrated that skills are required for the application of improved agricultural techniques and technologies to traditional farming, improving soil fertility and agro processing, food processing, food preservation and storage.

He went on that, Africa needs human resources to help improve public access to healthcare, good drinking water, disease preventing, sanitation and nutrition in regards to TVET programmes in basic healthcare, traditional medicine, drugstore management and public hygiene will be necessary and courses such as dispensary technology, laboratory technology, physician assistant programme and water and sanitation.

                                                                                                                                    

He advised that, emphasis should be on the acquisition of basic computer literacy skills, basic programming, network and data management as well as computer hardware maintenance and also in the teaching of i.c.t skills for secretarial work.

The rector further went on that, TVET are needed in areas such as building and construction, electrical installation and maintenance, welding and fabrication, road construction and agricultural infrastructure.

Prof. added that, the availability of adequate energy to drive Africans development remains one of the biggest challenges of the continent and that, training is required in the development and the use of alternative energies (in particular solar energy), natural resources management and land development and administration.

He however analysed that, the required labour force to train students in these areas are few. Inadequate lecturers and instructors pose a serious challenge to this developmental agenda and one of the fundamental aspects of a successful TVET system is the access that it provides to trainees.

He further explained that, TVET education is based on the development of a particular skill, assessing that skill for competence in performing a particular task. A successful learning outcome depends on the students’ ability to perform a task which is not based on reading and reproducing a theory for grade A without hands –on experience and that such skills and competences lead to innovation and creativity, which invariably creates a product- hence entrepreneurship.

Prof. recommended that, it will be imperative for each country to carry out an initial assessment of the existing national TVET policy, including funding levels and budget utilization, strengths, and weaknesses in order to address the deficiency and there is therefore the need to conduct country-specific baseline studies that also explore the existing links with the levels of education and national labour policies.