COTVET inaugurates Skills Devt Fund Committee

By Edmund Mingle
Skills development efforts in Ghana has received a major boost with the setting up of special Skill Development Fund (SDF) to support the nurturing of technical skills of the youth to actively take part in industry.

The SDF, set up by the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET), currently has seed money of over 30 million dollars provided by the Danish government, World Bank, African Development Bank, government of Ghana, with more expected from other donors.

With the establishment of the fund, both public and private sector institutions, as well as individuals can apply for support towards improving the technical skills capacity of their personnel.

A successful management and implementation of the fund is expected to enhance the country’s technical skills base to support the growth of industry.

Consequently, a nine member SDF Committee charged to oversee the management of the fund has been inaugurated in Accra.

The Committee, which has Charles Cofie, ----- of Unilever as its chairman is also tasked to undertake measures to ensure the sustainability so that its desired objectives are achieved.

Inaugurating the committee, Ms Sherry Ayitey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, charged the committee to ensure the fund was also used to support technical innovation by the youth.

“There is a lot of innovation in the system, and you need to help these young talent people such as those in Suame, to fine tune their innovation to feed industry with their products,” she stressed.

She also urged the committee to support skill development in the area of agro processing so that more value could be added to the country’s agriculture to further enhance the economy.

In addition, she asked them to ensure transparency and less cumbersome procedure to enable prospective beneficiaries easily access the funds.

That, she said would avoid the situation where funds intended for very good purposes remain under utilized because of cumbersome procedures.

“Disbursement must be swift and transparent so that those who genuinely qualify are assisted,” she said.

Members of the committee are Major (Rtd) M.S. Tara from the Ministry of Education, Alilagpa Sawyer, from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Ms Adelaide Asante, from the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology and Fred Pappoe representing the development partners.

Other are Brahons Achiayao representing the COTVET Board, Dan Baffour-Awuah, Executive Director of COTVET, George Afeti, Chief Inspector of Schools, GES, and Joshua Mallet, Director of the Centre for National Distance Learning and Schooling.

Mr. Cofie, speaking for the group, thanked the COTVET for the confidence reposed in them and pledged that they would do their best to deliver.

He called for cooperation between the committee and COTVET Board to ensure harmony in their operations for the benefit of Ghanaians.
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