A Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Emeritus Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, has called on Africa governments to reposition technical vocation education and training (TVET) from the peripheries to the mainstream to accelerate the continent’s industrialisation and transformation agenda.
He said TVET was a driver of economic transformation, and must, therefore, be prioritised in the mainstream of development planning across Africa, and not as a residual pathway since the future of Africa would not only be driven by degrees but with skills.
The former V-C was speaking at the maiden Jophus Anamoah-Mensah public lecture on the topic: Transforming technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Africa: Lessons and evidence from Ghana’s reform journey”.
It was organised by the Education and Skills Development (ESDEV) Foundation Africa, in collaboration with the University of Education Winneba (UEW), in partnership with other institutions in honour of Prof. Jophus Anamoah-Mensah, a former Vice-Chancellor of UEW, for his enduring contribution and visionary leadership towards educational reforms in the country and beyond.
The lecture, which was attended by policymakers, the academia, traditional rulers and students also coincided with Prof. Anamoah-Mensah’s 79th birthday.
Transformation
Prof. Tagoe said to achieve this objective, African governments needed to develop four pillars — governance and coordination, curriculum relevance and quality assurance, industry engagement, work-based learning and public perception and learner pathways.
“TVET is not a fall back option by any standards. It is the engine of economic transformation when properly governed, funded and connected to industry demands,” he said.
Prof. Tagoe further called for a legal framework for TVET education, including increased access through infrastructure and public perception campaigns, industry involvement, continuous capacity development and high education pathways.
“TVET transformation is not an experiment. It is a national and continental necessity,” he said, adding that Africa stood on the threshold of an industrial future that demanded skilled hands, innovative minds and practical problem solvers.
Prof. Tagoe said that more than 20 million young people entered the labour market every year across the African continent, while economies struggled to provide opportunities for them.
He said the continent needed technicians, artisans, technologists and skill operators to manage its economies which could be achieved through TVET.
Perception
Prof. Tagoe expressed concern over the perception that TVET education was inferior to grammar programmes.
He said this had led to fragmented oversight of TVET across multiple industries, weak progression pathways to higher education, under resourcing of institutions, outdated equipment, poor teaching and learning infrastructure and limited industry engagement.
Prof. Tagoe said the country had, however, made systemic efforts to confront such challenges, leading to increased enrolment in TVET institutions annually.
He said the nation had also invested extensively in infrastructure, moved towards competency-based, while standardising informal training and creating higher learning pathways in technical universities.
Prof. Tagoe further said research had showed that about 70 per cent of TVET graduates found employment upon completion of their respective courses.
Collaboration
The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, in an address read on his behalf, stressed the need to partner institutions and industry towards transformative growth.
He said more work was needed to enhance training quality, develop instructors and reinforce apprenticeship to adequately prepare learners for emerging opportunities, adding that educational reforms were a continuous collaborative process which required patience and integrity.
Appreciation
Prof. Anamoah-Mensah thanked the organisers for the honour done him, and urged all to see TVET as a possible first choice, adding that there was the need to reorient society on the importance of TVET education.
The CEO of ESDEV Foundation Africa, Prof. Francis Owusu-Mensah, paid tribute to Prof. Anamoah-Mensah for his positive impact on education development in the country and Africa as a whole.
Source:
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