Government urged to focus on TVET to address unemployment

The government has been urged to continue to commit more resources to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) as a means of addressing the growing graduate unemployment rate in the country.

Dr. Gilbert Owiah-Sampson, Dean, Faculty of Vocational Education at the Akenten Appiah-Minkah University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Development (AAM-USTED), said it was time to pay attention to entrepreneurship as a country grappling with unemployment among the youth.

He was speaking at an exhibition and fashion show organized by the Department of Fashion Design and Textiles Education of the university in Kumasi.

Dr. Owiah-Sampson said it was imperative to empower Ghanaian youth with practical skills to create employment not only for themselves but others to reduce the pressure on the government for public employment.

Educational institutions, he noted, must therefore design innovative strategies to produce critical thinkers capable of creating jobs after graduation rather than everyone joining the queue of job seekers in the public sector.

Dr. Josephine Aboagyewaa Ntiri, Head of Department (HOD) of Fashion Design and Textiles Education, said the university aimed at training students and equipping them with practical skills to become entrepreneurs.

This, she said, was the way to tackle the perennial high unemployment rate in the country.

She advised students pursuing the fashion design and textile education program to lead the crusade to reorient the minds of the Ghanaian youth to have a positive mindset towards TVET education and training.