COTVET, Samsung, others launch €1.08m project

Electronic manufacturing giant, Samsung, in partnership with the government of Ghana through the Council For Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) has unveiled a 1.08 million euros project to train 117 female students from four technical institutions.

The institutions to be trained under a programme dubbed: ‘Females in Profession Electronics Project’ are the Don Bosco Vocational Institute, Ashaiman, Pentecost Vocational Training Center, Gbawe, Accra Girls Vocational Institute (AGVI) and CYO Technical-Vocational Institute in Sovie, Volta Region.

Aside COTVET, others partnering Samsung to effectively roll out the programme are the German Cooperation (GIZ) and the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). Per the nitty-gritty of the project, Samsung and its partners have already set up state of the art electronic teaching labs in all the four schools.

The project was also expected to provide Accra Girls and Don Bosco with two additional classrooms, each constructed from pre-fabricated mobile housing units. Unveiling the project in Accra Tuesday, Minister of Education, Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang said Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) had been identified as the needed means to providing the needed skills to empower the youth, spurring social and economic growth in Ghana.

According to her, Ghana has been endowed with skilled tradesmen in several sectors of the economy, which is unacceptably dominated by males. Expressing her disaffection over the misnomer, Mrs. Opoku Agyemang said COTVET has been implementing several policies, projects and programmes aimed at rewriting the narrative and delivering demand driven skills to support Ghana’s economic growth agenda.

“This process has also taken cognizance of the gender perspectives of skills development, responding to peculiar needs of males and females in the sector,” she said. “In pursuit of the agenda by the Government of Ghana to mainstream gender in the ongoing TVET reforms, COTVET has rolled out several Interventions to address the situation where females avoid trades that are considered as the preserve of males.

“The Females in Profession Electronics project is one of several interventions by COTVET and the Government of Ghana to address the skills mismatch,” added Mrs. Opoku Agyemang. The Females in Profession Electronics project was meant to break the monopoly in the profession said COTVET’s Executive Director, Sebastien Deh.

Jingak Chung, Managing Director, Samsung Electronics, West Africa said the project would impact positively on education delivery specifically for female students. He said the initiative was expected to increase the number of women making advances in the male dominated industry of electronics, tipping the scales and positioning of women as knowledgeable contributors to the industry.

Samsung, he added was honoured to be the main drivers of the project which highlights the value of progressive partnership across sectors as it was the only mechanism to tackle the myriad of challenges facing the Ghanaian. Mr. Chung further noted that “Samsung’s core business relies heavily on being able to access skilled people in the engineering and technological fields –so joining forces and improving formations such as the Female Professionals in Electronics Projects makes sense from all angles.”

The government alone, stated Mrs. Opoku Agyemang, cannot achieve the high expectations towards skills training in the country and requires the support of all stakeholders, indicating -”It was, therefore, welcome relief when GIZ, KOICA and the Samsung Group decided to partner COTVET and the Government of Ghana in carrying out this laudable project.”