K-Poly initiates programme to link local industries
The Kumasi Polytechnic has started working with over 30 local industries to exchange ideas, technologies and knowledge as part of measures to bridge the gap between the industries and academia.
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The move is to provide polytechnic lecturers and students the opportunity to tap the practical expertise and know-how of the local industries and also share with the local industries their theoretical knowledge and other applied know-how.
Addressing the maiden meeting between the lecturers and owners of the local industries in the Ashanti Region at the Kumasi Polytechnic, the Rector of the Kumasi Polytechnic, Prof. Nicholas N. N. N. Nsowah-Numah, said there was ample evidence that local industries had rich experience and knowledge which needed to be polished.
The project is on the theme: “Developing and Transforming Innovative Products in the Private Sector under the Ministry of Environment Science and Technology and COTVET”.
Those partnering the K-Poly include food processors, soap makers, small and large-scale palm oil millers, rice growers and cocoa growers.
Exchange of ideas
Under the arrangement, polytechnic lecturers with expertise and knowledge in particular fields of endeavour would be attached to a specific industry to learn and also share their ideas with the industry players.
The lecturers would also identify challenges of the industry, prescribe solutions and when necessary undertake further investigations into those challenges. They would also tap the expertise of the players and incorporate them in teaching their students.
Technical university
Prof. Nsowah-Numah explained that assuming the position of a Technical University required that the lecturers and students had hands-on experience about almost all the theoretical issues they had been dealing with at the polytechnic.
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He said the close bond between local industries and the school had become necessary because it had been realised that most of the industry players were used to practices that could be modified with a little knowledge from the lecturers.
Entrepreneurs’ Village
He announced that the school had also established an Entrepreneurial Village which served as business incubators where businesses would be nurtured till they were capable to stand on their feet, before they would be released to move to the competitive world.
The Director of the Centre for Research and Development for Technology Incubation of the Kumasi Polytechnic, Dr Felix Engmann, said through the attachment by the lecturers, they would identify issues with the small-scale industry and prescribe solutions to them.
He disclosed that already, some of the lecturers from the Kumasi Polytechnic were working with the local industries.