‘Give due recognition to City and Guilds holders’

THE West Africa Representative of City and Guilds International, Mr Kingsley Koranteng Aseidu, has called for the proper recognition and placement of holders of City and Guilds certificates in the country.
“We are faced with the challenges of recognition from employers and some educational institutions. The sad aspect is that, some employers discriminate against technical/vocational graduates when it comes to job placement and salary,” he said.
Addressing the press in Accra, Mr Aseidu said although the City and Guilds Advanced Diploma was equated to the Higher National Diploma (HND), some organisations paid the HND holders more than the City and Guilds Diploma holders.
In addition, he said, although City and Guilds trained people to become professionals with internationally recognised certification, the “Nurses and Midwives Council is twisting these efforts by preventing government hospitals from employing these graduates”, and called for the immediate intervention by the Ministry of Health.
He said the health care professionals were not nurses or competing with nurses, but provided auxiliary health care services to support nurses and doctors to provide better services.
Mr Aseidu, stressed the need for due recognition of City and Guilds holders and for proper attention to be paid to technical and vocational education.
Mr Aseidu said City and Guilds was one of the world’s leading vocational and technical awarding bodies.
Founded in the City of London in 1878, he said, the examination body now qualified 1.8 million learners in 80 countries every year, adding that City and Guilds offered qualifications in almost all levels of industry.
He said City and Guilds had been operating in Ghana and West Africa for the past 55 years, and that “indeed, it was the only vocational/technical awarding body in Ghana before the localisation of some of their awards by the Ghana Education Service (GES) Technical Vocational Education Division in 1984/1985”.
Mr Aseidu said City and Guilds operated through schools, colleges, training providers and employers, and that such institutions were referred to as approved centres which were given unique numbers once they had been approved to deliver training based on City and Guilds syllabus which were based on the international job market.
“We have over 65 approved centres including employers, training providers who enter their trainees for our examinations every year. Some of the awards include oil and gas, electrical and electronic engineering, mechanical engineering, telecommunication engineering, hairdressing, health care, information technology, hospitality and catering,” he said
Mr Aseidu said City and Guilds had seven levels starting from certificate, diploma and advanced diploma, graduateship, among others, and that those certificates were recognised worldwide for further education and for employment.
In some cases, he said, holders of the advanced diploma were allowed to do one or two years top up degree programmes.
He said City and Guilds was recognised by the GES and the National Accreditation Board (NAB) which normally “verify our certificates and establish the equivalent levels with the local awards”.
Mr Aseidu deplored the way and manner technical education was being handled, and suggested that a technical/vocational levy be set up to support the delivery of technical/vocational education.