Council to oversee 20 Catholic pilot institutions inagurated

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11-08-08

THE Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, Most Rev Charles Palmer-Buckle, has inaugurated the Council for Catholic Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
The council’s primary task is to provide strategic direction on the implementation of the Business Plans of the 20 pilot institutions of the Catholic Church.
It shall, among other things, oversee to the mentoring of six selected institutions and centres to become TVET icons, ensure career progression needs of the management and staff of Catholic vocational training centres, and provide policy co-ordination between the church and government.
In his inaugural address, Most Rev Palmer-Buckle said the aim of the Catholic TVET policy was to bring about a transition of vocational and technical training centres and institutes from marginalised and under-resourced entities to vibrant and self-sustaining institutions.
“The Catholic TVET policy thus is towards promoting in the long term a flexible competency-based TVET system with proficiency testing to meet the employment and career aspirations of the youth. Thus the church envisions that the Catholic TVET system becomes an economically and socially sustainable TVET system delivering to Ghanaian youth knowledge, skills and gospel values,” he said.
He said the church could boost 20 business plans meant to guide the pilot institutions and centres to enhance employability and role of vocational and technical schools, ensure sustained financial resources and promote TVET policy advocacy.
Most Rev Palmer-Buckle said the key concerns that the business plans would be addressing were both systemic and operational, adding that they included the outmoded curriculum that called for intensive advocacy and low calibre of instructors.
The Chairman of the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Mr M.K. Bulley, said the international community had identified the potential of TVET to offer employable skills to address the unemployment situation and its resultant poverty among the youth.
In a welcoming address, the Catholic Bishop of Keta-Akatsi, Most Rev Anthony Adanuty, said the church believed that the potential existed for her to make significant contribution to the holistic development of the youth and the building of a society that would uphold the culture of hard work.
The 12-member council has the immediate past Rector of Accra Polytechnic, Prof. Ralph Asabere, as its chairman. The other members are, Mrs Elizabeth Villars, Managing Director of Camelot Ghana Limited; Ms Josephine Sey, a retired educationist; Mr Theophilus Opare Annor, a technical educationist, and Mr Asamoah Duodu, Director of the Technical Education Division of the Ghana Education Service (GES).
The rest are Father Michael Gbordzor, Principal of Comboni Technical Institute; Ms Rosa M. Sam, President of the Association of Catholic Vocational and Technical Centres; Nana (Dr) Baah Boakye, Executive Secretary of the NBSSI; Mr Bennet Kpentey, Managing Director of Sync Consult; Mr Dave Anane-Druyeh, General Manager, Catholic Schools; Mrs Philomena Johnson and Mr Steven Godomey.