Management of the Department of Integrated Community Centre of Employment Skills at Kokoben in the Bosomefreho District of the Ashanti Region, has urged the government to focus on revamping technical and vocational institutions in the country as a means of reducing unemployment in the country.
The DICCES management said the request had become necessary because the institutions trained students to become creative and self-employed.
According to the Principal of the DICCES, Mr Alex Opoku, “before students graduate from any technical or vocational institution, they would have acquired skills that make it possible for them to become self-employed and not rely on anybody for jobs”.
“Management, therefore, entreats the government to pay serious attention to technical and vocational education in order that unemployment in the country is reduced,” he said.
Mr Opoku made the appeal when the queen mother Nana Adwubi Keteh and the residents at Kokoben donated some building materials to the school for the construction of hostel and boarding facility.
Mr Opoku, speaking to the media revealed the state of Kokoben School of Department of Integrated Community Center of Employment Skills, bemoaned the negative mindset of the public regarding technical and vocational education.
He said the widely held perception that technical and vocational institutions were for academically weak students was incorrect because it was based on ignorance.
He has, under the circumstances, called for a change of mindset and has urged parents and guardians to get their children and wards enrolled into Kokoben School of Department of Integrated Community Center of Employment Skills.
“Let us get the youth into these schools that create self-employment avenues so that in the long run, they would become capable of contributing significantly to the economic development of the nation,” he said.
For his part, the Queen mother of Kokoben Nana Adwubi Keteh, suggested to the students to set up their own businesses when they complete school.
She then appealed to government to come to their aid by providing them with teaching and learning materials especially in the practical equipment. She added that, government should enrolled students to the school so that, the school would not collapse in the near future.