A move that has seen the Council for Technical and Vocational Educational Training (COTVET) engage celebrities and other Media Personalities to promote TVET in Ghana has been described by the Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak as a lazy approach.
According to the lawmaker, making TVET attractive requires a well thought through plan, embracing relevant content, strategic resourcing, capacity building and provision of infrastructure among others rather than what he describes as just form and appearances.
In June 2019, the Ministry of Education through COTVET launched the ‘MyTVET campaign’ with the aim of changing negative perceptions about TVET in Ghana. One of the key activities of the campaign is the TVET Ambassador campaign which would complement efforts such as the Skills Competition, Radio and TV advertisements, TVET clubs in Junior High Schools, TVET Career Guidance and Counselling, Roadshows among others.
The Ambassadors will be engaged in activities such as school visitations, social media campaigns, community visitations and radio and television talk shows.
As part of the campaign, six Ambassadors including Kwami Sefa Kayi – Media personality, Okyeame Kwame (Kwame Nsiah-Apau) Musician and Entrepreneur, Actress Martha Ankomah and Entrepreneur Rebecca Donkor. The rest are Berla Mundi a Media personality and Dr. Daniel McKorley an Entrepreneur.
But in a Statement, Dr. Apaak who is a ranking member of the Education committee of Parliament said the NDC’s roadmap to making TVET attractive including expanding TVET educational facilities, providing laboratories, enhancing the TVET curricula to match modern trends, upgrading the qualifications of facilitators and the conversion of polytechnics into Technical Universities remains the sure way to promote TVET in Ghana.
He said former President Mahama has an appreciation of how best to make the TVET graduate useful.
“Clearly, from President Mahama’s superior appreciation of how best we can make use of the TVET graduate, if you want young people to go into vocational and technical education, you make it attractive in terms of investments in TVET, and not in ambassadors. This means there should be a deliberately created rich curriculum from the basic to the Technical University level. This way, TVET would become more prestigious and many of our best students would opt for technical and vocational training rather than the more grammar focused education that have been traditionally offered”. He stated in a statement copied to Dreamzonline.com
