Mr Ishmael Ashitey, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, said this at the opening of the 34th Conference of the Association of Principals of Technical Institutions in Accra on Wednesday.  The one-week conference is on the theme: “Re-Alignment of TVET - A Step Towards the Achievement of Ghana Beyond Aid.”

Mr Ashitey said the theme was appropriate when considered against the background that the technical, vocational and skills training sectors had not received the attention they deserved. He said government’s vision was to accelerate the country’s development through industrialisation and key to this was quality technical and vocational education, which had been erroneously perceived as good for academically deficient students.

“We in Government seek to strategically position the TVET system to produce a labour force with enhanced skills, capable of producing items of high quality for both local and foreign markets and for the sustenance of the industrialisation drive,” Mr Ashitey said.

He said enough lip service had been paid to the TVET sector for which reason government had initiated a number of policy measures to improve its coordination and enhance the effectiveness of its operations.                                                                                                                                                                                 

Mr Ashitey commended the Association for the efficient manner in which it dealt with the examination malpractices by some students involving text messaging and smuggling in of prepared answers with the intent to cheat. “Our examination strategy should do away with the chew, pour and pass situation and directed to help the broad mental development of the candidate,” he added.     

Mr Emmanuel Asiedu, the Chief Executive Officer of Gratis Foundation, said Ghana was blessed with a lot of natural resources and if prudently exploited and managed, would lift her beyond foreign aid.

He said getting Ghana beyond aid required value addition to her exports such as cocoa, gold, bauxite, manganese and oil.      Mr Asiedu expressed the hope that the country’s economy would become one that would not depend on charity and hand-outs but an economy that would look at the proper management of its resources as the way to engineer social and economic growth.

Mr Albert Adusei, the President of the Association, said vocational and technical training provided the youth with skills made them productive and responsible citizens to contribute meaningfully towards development.He urged parents not to force their children into courses that they were not interested in but allow them to take up courses that they would be comfortable with.