NVTI presents start-up tools to trainees
The National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) has presented start-up tools for final-year students in its institutions to enable them to set up their own businesses when they complete school.
The tools, among others, are for dressmaking, welding, auto-electricals, auto-mechanic, catering, masonry, tiling and carpentry.
The tools were procured with the support of Tools for Self Reliance, a UK-based charity organisation working to help relieve poverty in Africa.
Speaking at a ceremony yesterday, May 9, to present the tools to the students, the Executive Director of NVTI, Mrs Mawusi Nudekor Awity, said the initiative was the maiden edition of the institute’s presentation of start-up tools to its students.
Scholarships Secretariat
In the quest of management to prepare trainees adequately for the world of work, Mrs Awity said it sent a proposal to the Scholarships Secretariat where it got money to help some trainees pay their fees as well as procure tools.
“May I use this opportunity to say a very big thank you to Tools for Self Reliance, a UK-based organisation that supports people to get decent work. We sent our proposal to Tools for Self Reliance and it shipped the items to us,” she said.
She also commended the Scholarships Secretariat for its support for the institute and the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations for facilitating the procurement of the tools, adding that “this is the beginning of this journey; this is the first, more will be coming.”
Mrs Awity noted that the presentation of the tools was to prevent the situation where the trainees would come out of school and then go out to search for non-existing jobs.
She, therefore, appealed to philanthropists, corporate bodies and the government to come to the aid of the institute so that it could support its trainees to be able to set up their own businesses.
Society’s attitude
A Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Bright Wireko Brobbey, deplored society’s negative attitude towards technical, vocational education and training (TVET) in the country.
He pledged the government’s support for the institute and the TVET sector as a whole, stressing, “As a country, we have a duty to encourage the youth and let those coming up believe that it is technical and vocational skills that can help us grow and develop.”
Mr Brobbey charged the trainees to take good care of the tools and use them for the intended purpose to achieve good results.
He commended the NVTI executive director for her passion for the development of the TVET sector which was critical to dealing with the country’s unemployment situation.
On behalf of the beneficiaries, the Manager of the New Century Career Training Institute of the NVTI, Ms Rita Gyening, thanked the donors for the tools and gave an assurance that they would be put to good use.