Linking academia and industry: 1D1F trains scholarship beneficiaries

Students on government scholarship will now undertake practical attachment at a One District, One Factory (1D1F) in their communities.

The move is part of measures to link academia with industry and afford students practical experience before they enter the world of work.

The first batch of the students numbering about 5,000, will be paid a monthly stipend equivalent to what the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) beneficiaries are receiving.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in an interview on March 23, the Registrar of Government Scholarship Secretariat, Mr Kingsley Agyemang, said almost every issue about the programme had been concluded, and that but for the COVID-19 pandemic, the first batch would have started last year.

Beginning

For a start, he said, only students in levels 100 and 400 would be made to undergo the practical training, to learn at first hand what they had been taught in the lecture halls as well as whip up their interest in setting up their own industries.

He gave an assurance that the secretariat had the required resources and the data to execute the programme.

Mr Agyemang stated that his outfit had completed discussions with almost all the factories as part of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s vision of linking industry to academia and also ensure that products of tertiary institutions were not found wanting when they entered the world of work.

Big announcement

Touching on the launch on an online application portal for scholarship, he said after the successful launch in April, last year, more than 300,000 applicants had submitted their applications.

He said the President directed that the Scholarships Secretariat immediately open the online portal for free SHS graduates to apply for scholarships for their tertiary education as soon as possible.

“This is an opportunity for our cherished first beneficiaries of the Free SHS policy who would be eligible to once again enjoy a tuition-free tertiary education in Ghana,” he added.

Mr Agyemang said the secretariat was currently undertaking validation of successful applicants to cross-check against their schools, school fees and other relevant information to pave the way for the granting of the scholarships.