Govt to support church based technical training

Accra, May 11, GNA - Government would provide equal opportunities and support to church based organisations through funding as identified in the new Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) policy framework, Mr Ampofo-Twumasi, Deputy Minister for Education Science and Sports said in Accra on Wednesday.

Private TVET providers and the churches were to be recognised under the policy to deliver TVET like any public institution, Mr Ampofo Twumasi said in a speech read for him at a forum on the role of the churches in technical vocation education and training in Ghana. The forum, which brought together a cross-section of stakeholders in TVET was aimed at sharing experiences of what the churches had achieved and the constraints they faced in skills training and employment creation in contributing to national development goals. It was also to help understand the conceptual framework of new TVET policy and its implications for the churches and identify the challenges ahead of the churches in providing quality TVET training to enhance employment opportunities for the youth.

Mr. Ampofo-Twumasi said currently government through cabinet, had approved the TVET policy framework and the Attorney Generals Department had prepared a bill, which had been approved by cabinet and would be placed before parliament at the next section for consideration and passage.

He said some of the implications for church-based TVET included opportunity to ask for absorption of schools without losing identity and opportunity to partner government to run a one-year paid apprenticeship programme to improve access.

He said some CBO TVET providers had already started enjoying government support through the provision of salaries and administration to vocational institution run by the National Vocational Training Institution citing the Catholic, Presbyterian, Evangelical Presbyterian churches, among others.

He appealed to CBO to continue the good work of providing employable skills to the youth they started training long ago before government provided assistance, adding that monetary consideration should not be their objective.

Dr George Afeti, Chairman, National Coordinating and Advisory Council of the Catholic Church said the church runs 55 major vocational training centres in all the ten regions representing 11.3 percent of the 486 registered TVET institutions and centres in the country and 19 per cent of private TVET centres. He said the church was the largest institutional player in Ghana's TVET system with a total enrolment of catholic VTC being 9689 with 5960 being female representing 62 percent of the total enrolment and 3729 male.

Dr Afeti said the church was therefore well placed to provide skills to at least 10,000 youth throughout the country, including the remotest and poorest villages where government intervention was minimal, thus removing the gender, economic and geographical inequality that hinder access to TVET by the rural poor. The key issue is how to turn VTCs from their present marginalized and undersourced state into vibrant self-sustaining institutions that were in high demand because of the quality of training and good employment prospects they offer. Rev Dr Robert Aboagye Mensah, Presiding Bishop of Methodist Church, in a speech read for him said equipment and hand tools of most CBOs were inadequate and thus were some areas in which government must come in to assist the churches in providing adequate VTIs for young people.

He said everything must be done to change the negative perception about VTIs in the country as it affected the growth of the institutions, adding that government should team up with churches to make training of young people effective so as to strengthen democracy and good governance. 11 May 06