Director-General, TVET, urges YOTA, PESEWAY participants to create jobs with the tool they have

Director-General of the Ghana Technical and Vocational Education and Training Service(TVET), Mrs. Mawusi Nudekor Awity has urged participants of the just-ended Pathways for Sustainable Employment for Women and Youth(PESEWAY) and Young Opportunity and Transformation in Africa participants to make good use of what they have. This, according to her, was commendable for accelerating the job-creation agenda. She said the what they have must help to alleviate the unemployment challenges within their cycles. She observed that the graduation ceremony which took place in Accra on January 27, 2023 is a tool to cause a change. Themed, "TVET: Catalyst for Job Creation and Employment", she is upbeat the training would help create jobs in an era where unemployment is one of the challenges facing the youth in almost all countries. Funded by the German government(BMZ), she added, "It's becoming copiously clear that people without skills today have no prospects on the job market and therefore will find it very difficult to make a decent living and be empowered enough to contribute to nation building". "This calls for the positioning of Technical and Vocational Education and Training(TVET) on a high pedestal as a country if we hope to be socio-economically independent", Mrs. Nudekor Awity averred. "...TVET provides skills, knowledge, and attitudes to prepare individuals for employment or self-employment, aid individuals to uphold the dignity of labour and right attitudes to real work situations. It is, key for employment and self-employment opportunities which result in economic growth", she added. Despite the gains made in educational access and accomplishments across the world over the past decade, she re-echoed the concerns that the world is still facing youth unemployment, and quality TVET is widely recognized as having an important role to play in tackling the problem. She pointed out that TVET's orientation towards work and acquisition of employable skills means that it is well placed to addressing issues such as skills mismatch which has Impeded the smooth school-to-work transitions for many young people. "Mr. Chairman, the grammar type of education is no longer the elitist system it once was, but a global mass market. TVET is currently being viewed as a potential tool for job creation and employment in Ghana and beyond", she added. TVET, she said has proven to be an educational pathway used to significantly reduce unemployment mainly because it focuses on providing work-relevant skills adding,"Countries with embedded systems of TVET such as Germany and the United Kingdom have been successful in maintaining appreciatiable employment rates and Ghana will be no different if it practices same". In order for TVET to have a significant impact in an era of rapid technological change and globalization, TVET institutions are implementing employment and admission of persons with special needs, strong collaboration with donor partners,renewed emphasis on soft skills development to promote employability, institutionalization of best TVET teacher and non-teaching staff awards, emphasis on graduate tracer studies, further studies, life-long learning research and innovation, increase female participation in leadership, implementation of gender responsive programmes(male in female dominated programmes and female in male dominated programmes, involvement of private providers in the activities of the service. She said being empowered with skills is the first step towards improving one's living standards. Lastly, she concluded that the power they were endowed with must remain a property ready to be shared with others.