Ten technical institutes have received grants of between US$70,000 and US$100,000 to undertake commercial ventures in order to generate revenues and support the institutes’ development in the future.
The commercial ventures include mechanised vegetable cultivation, installation and repair of solar panels, establishment of computerised auto diagnostic facilities, and commercial block manufacturing.
The beneficiary institutions are Ada Technical Institute, Akwatia Technical Institute, Amankwakrom Technical Institute, Asowansi Technical Institute, Bolga Technical Institute, Kpando Technical Institute, Nkoranza Technical Institute, Dabokpa Technical Institute, Wa Technical Institute, and Krobea Asante Technical Institute.
The grant was part of the government of Ghana’s support under the Development of Skills for Industry Project (DSIP).DSIP is designed to reinforce government’s efforts in implementing the reform of Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
It is funded with a US$120million loan facility from the Africa Development Bank and implemented by the Project Support Unit of the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET).
The overall purpose of DSIP is to support the development of high quality middle-level technical and vocational skills needed in the Ghanaian economy.Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Education, urged the beneficiaries — who are the first batch to receive the grant — to manage their projects with a business mindset with the aim of setting a good example for a pilot intervention, based on which future replications can be premised.
He said one of the strategies government has been implementing through COTVET is the setting up of institutional production units in TVET institutions.
Such units, he said, will serve as workshops and business centres for the production and marketing of items that have market potential. Revenues realised from such enterprises will go to support the schools’ developmental efforts.
“In the pursuit of this objective, COTVET launched the Institutional Production Unit’s Call for Proposals in June 2014, which has culminated in selection of the 10 beneficiary institutions that have received the grants.
“The sound experience from management of the Skills Development Fund gives me confidence that COTVET has put in place a similarly efficient technical, financial and procurement management and monitoring mechanism, to ensure grants are utilised for the approved activities and to benefit the institutions and Ghana in general,” he said.