Deputy Director General of TVET Service, David Prah, has disclosed that the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) for junior high school students will be free, starting April 4.

According to him, the initiative will ensure that students who have developed interest in areas identified within TVET will have the opportunity to train. Mr Prah explained that the Service has currently placed all students who have completed junior high school and desire to undertake TVET on the computerised selection and school placement system.

“So, things have gone on well so far. We’ve done a number of activities as a Service. The key among them is to drive the President’s vision of making TVET free for all Ghanaian children who have completed junior high school [and] come 4^th of April [students] will enter TVET institutions in the country [for] free. It is important for us to mention that technical and vocational education and training is the fulcrum [and] the centrepiece around which the development of the country thrives. So, for effective TVET delivery, all these TVET institutions have to come together…”
David Prah

The Deputy Director General for TVET Service expressed that the TVET Service, an initiative launched on behalf of President Akufo-Addo, seeks to ensure effective coordination of TVET and obtain a demand driven and industry led programs. He indicated that it’s important that all the technical and vocational educational and training institutions in the country are brought together to form what is now called the Ghana TVET Service so that they can achieve the transformation agenda set out by the President to improve education and for that matter TVET.

Funding for TVET education

Commenting on the funding for the “free TVET”, Mr Prah indicated that as it’s being done by the government in relation to free senior high school, the Service will pick its funding from the same source. He revealed that taxes being paid into government’s coffers, including the “almighty e-levy that we will pay” might be used. Alternatively, he intimated that the Service can possibly depend on the “oil money that the government is using to fund the free senior high school” to cater to the demands of free TVET.

“Moreso, the philanthropical and donor agencies, our development partners have been supporting. A lot of development partners, we are talking about GIZ, Danida, Africa Development Bank, World Bank and the embassies have expressed interest in the funding of TVET”.
David Prah

Mr Prah disclosed that TVET is very critical to the development of the country and as such, his outfit is looking at producing graduates who are going to fit into the industry. In line with government’s industrialization agenda and the implementation of programmes such as ‘One District One Factory’, he explained it is imperative to provide the requisite manpower, industry knowledge and people with hands-on experiences to do the work and what is required of them as a country.

“That is why the council for technical and vocational education then, now it has metamorphosed into Commission for TVET and TVET Service have come together to develop demand-driven industry led programs. So, if the programs are not in demand [and] people are not looking for those graduates, we are not going to train graduates on that…”
David Prah