That, she said, was where young people in the country could work in industries, Africa and the globe at large.

“Our youthful population is very high and so once we train them in quality TVET, investors who are coming into the country are sure of getting quality decent and ready-to-work youth, to be employed in their various industries,” Mrs Ampofo said on Monday after she toured some examination centres in the ongoing TVET examination.

The deputy minister, who was accompanied by the Director General of the Commission for TVET, Dr Fred Kyei Asamoah, toured some of the exam centres including the Sacred Heart Technical Institute, Accra Technical Training Centre (ATTC), Accra Girls Vocational Institute, GH Media School and the Tema Technical Institute.

Over 29,000 financial-year students are writing TVET examination commissioned by CTVET, which started last Monday, July 10 until August 4, 2023.

Skills gap

The investments in TVET, Mrs Ampofo said, were in the areas including cosmetology, welding and metal fabrication, electronics and electricals, automobile, plumbing and piping, masonry and carpentry.

“After CTVET had carried out the skills gaps analysis and audit, we now know the trade areas the country needs, what Africa needs and what the world in general needs, so these are areas that we have invested in to ensure that our graduates become a hot cake wherever they find themselves,” she said.

Attention

Mrs Ampofo said TVET had received the necessary attention in the areas of policy, programmes and investments and that what was left was with the change of mindset, which took some time.

Fortunately this year, she said, during the Computerised School Selection and Placement System, students who had aggregate eight, 10 and 12, opted for TVET institutions although they were placed in some top grammar schools.

“This shows how well the advocacy, investment and education, together with support from the media have gone well.

Now parents and students have realised that the way to go is TVET,” she said.

On what the ministry was doing to deal with the negative perception about TVET, she said the ministry was doing a lot with the establishments of the Ghana TVET Service, CTVET, which had undertaken a programme to sensitise the public to the importance of TVET and for youngsters to take it as a career.

Ambassadors

“We also have TVET ambassadors to reach out to the public.

Another thing is that when it is getting to the last term for final-year junior high school students, all the technical institutes organise open days for students to visit them to see what is there and give them career guidance,” she said.

In spite of that, she said “there is still more room for improvement”.