AAMUSTED receives €900,000 grants from GIZ to support TVET

The Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development(AAMUSTED) has received a € 900,000 grant from the German International Development Agency (GlZ), to support the transformation of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) systems in Ghana.

Similarly, the World University Services of Canada (WUSC), has provided grant of Gh¢368,700.00 to the University for Implementing the Innovation in Non-Traditional Vocational Education and Skills Training (INVEST) project.

And, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural  Organization (UNESCO), with support from the Republic of South Korea, has chosen AAMUSTED as one of the key implementing agents of its “Better Education for Africa’s Rise” (BEAR) Phase III Project, in support of Ghana’s TVET sector,

Prof. Frederick Kwaku Sarfo, Vice Chancellor of the AAMUSTED, disclosed these at the second graduation ceremony of the University at the weekend.

The government identified TVET as a paradigm shifting-factor in transforming traditionally academic-oriented societies into skills-based productive economies that are able to provide the expanding youth population with useful and easily marketable skills.

To support TVET transformational agenda of the government and to contribute to employability for all, the University’s mandates includes providing higher education in technical, vocational and entrepreneurial training to develop skilled manpower for job creation and economic development.

It also trains and provide teachers with the relevant competence for teaching in technical and vocational education and training institutions; train and provide teachers with the relevant competence for teaching entrepreneurial development; and develop strong linkages between the University and industry, or the community, to ensure the holistic training of teachers.

According to the Vice Chancellor, to position the University strategically to achieve its mandate and to promote the government’s TVET, Entrepreneurship, and Industrialisation Transformation Agenda, they had focused their initial energies on building a very strong foundation to make AAMUSTED stable, visible, competitive, and attractive.

He said the successful conduct of a national and internal university-wide Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA) to guide the strategic development of the University, resulted in the development of 78 new academic programmes related to TVET and entrepreneurial education, in consultation with major stakeholders, especially industries.

Thirty-eight of the programmes, he said, were fully accredited with the rest at various stages of the accreditation process, adding that “overall, we have managed to increase the number of academic programmes at our University from 42 to over 120 since 2020”.

To bridge the gap between industry and academia, he said the University had partnered The Africa Environment Sanitation Consult (AFESC), the Research and Consulting Arm of the Jospong Group of Companies to collaborate on research, planned activities, and projects, Certified Electrical Wiring Professionals Association – Ghana (CEWPAG) and the Technical Universities and eight Colleges of Education whose programmes were related to TVET.

Realizing that financing quality TVET and Entrepreneurial Tertiary Education and Training was an expensive undertaking and a shared responsibility, Prof Sarfo, appealed to individuals, business organisations, and other stakeholders to support the University in pursuing its TVET and Entrepreneurial Agenda.

The Vice Chancellor expressed worry that with a student population of more than 30,453, the university was unable to accommodate even five percent of them on each campus.

“We need more student residential accommodations, lecture halls, workshops, and laboratories with modern tools and equipment to cope with the increasing number of students…the 3,500-capacity Convention Center project has been abandoned for over a decade”, he appealed.

He told the graduands that they had been trained to be resilient and adaptive TVET and Entrepreneurial Development Graduate Teachers, and “I encourage you to have the courage to establish businesses of your own but not become perpetual job seekers”.

A total of 1,190 students were conferred with various certificates including 486 Master’s Degrees, 244 Bachelor’s Degrees, 420 Diplomas, and 39 Certificates

AAMUSTED conferred its first Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Degree on one of its illustrious students.

Chairman of the University Governing Council, Paul Kwasi Agyemang said the Council was working towards achieving the University’s mandate of skills training and entrepreneurial development.

He added that he university was developing a structure to harmonise and operationalize training efforts in Workplace Experience Learning (WEL), Industrial Attachment, Internship, etc., to strengthen the practical training of students.

FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE, KUMASI