With a festive event at the Accra International Conference Centre, the nation-wide MyTVET Campaign was officially launched by Hon. Gifty Twum Ampofo, Deputy Minister of TVET (MoE).
The campaign is executed by the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) in order to highlight the importance of the TVET sector in Ghana and to increase enrollment in Technical and Vocational Institutions, using such tools as the National Skills Competition, TVET clubs in Junior High Schools, Career Guidance and Counselling and the use of TVET Ambassadors and Role Models.
Following the GSDI objective to highlight the importance of skills development through TVET in Ghana, GSDI has been supporting the conceptualization and implementation of COTVET’s MyTVET campaign from the start, including a roll-out of a Role Model Video and a Poster Campaign, as well as supporting the launching event.
In a vivid panel discussion moderated by the Board Chairman of COTVET, Mr. Francis Ansuah Kyerematen, representatives of the German Embassy and the Embassy of Switzerland to Ghana, as well as the Private Enterprise Federation (PEF), addressed the nearly 900 guests. Hans-Helge Sander, Chargée d’affaires of the Embassy of Germany to Ghana explained to the vast group of JHS students in the audience the positive impact of TVET training in Germany and Ghana and the positive impact of well-trained workers on the private sector and the national economy. He stated that the MyTVET campaign will spread the message that TVET is attractive because modern apprenticeship in Ghana include schooling in well-equipped training providers and a parallel skills training in the private sector.
Daniel Lauchenauer, Deputy Head of Cooperation in the Embassy of Switzerland in Ghana, noted that the campaign will advance a professional and attractive image of trained workers to the Ghanaian people as well as to the Ghanaian private sector. "Close to 70% of school graduates in Switzerland start practical training. The key success factor of the Swiss TVET system is private sector involvement, private sector involvement and private sector involvement", he explained. In order to create relevant skills especially among the growing young population in Ghana and for the growing Ghanaian economy, the TVET system has to be strongly anchored and promoted within Ghana’s private sector. Only a strong involvement of industries will ensure a TVET system tailored towards economic growth by addressing labor market demands. "The German TVET system is demand-based. The private sector defines the contents and curricula of the young people's training", added the representative of the German Embassy Mr Sander. In full agreement, Nana Osei Bonsu, Chief Executive Officer of PEF, complemented that the industries of the private sector have to be closely involved in the TVET sector’s training. All participants highlight the Ghanaian government's efforts to establish a modern, demand-based TVET system in Ghana.
After the official part of the event, the visitors were presented the first videos of the Role Model Campaign and were offered a walk through an exhibition of the MyTVET campaign posters.
