Technical universities must produce right calibre of graduates – Dr. Afeti
Dr. George Afeti, Chairman of the African Union Technical and Vocational Education Training {TVET) Expert Group, has urged Technical Universities to focus on producing graduates with the requisite skills and expertise for industry.
Their products, he said should make a difference – meet the demands of the market.
He said as more of their products found their way into industry, they would become the institution of choice by students.
Dr. Afeti, who was delivering the inaugural lecture of the Koforidua Technical University, said it should not be about copying the traditional universities but that they concentrated on their core mandate.
He indicated that their success would depend on hard work and creativity of the lecturers and the management, adding that, it should not be business as usual.
He called for some flexibility in the academic timetable that would allow good faculty members, poached by industry to come to lecture the students at their convenience.
Mr. Rockson Kwesi Dogbegah, Executive Chairman of Berock Ventures Limited, underlined the need for stronger collaboration between academia and industry and said this was vital as the traditional sources of funding of the tertiary institutions kept dwindling.
He said under the current circumstance, industry could become an important source of funding to help them to deliver on their mandate.
There was also the added advantage of creating the opportunity for industry to make inputs into the academic programmes of the institutions to align these with the demands of industry.
He said that would help academia to carry out research activities to grow businesses.
He reminded tertiary institutions to do more to turn out highly skilled workforce for an increasingly competitive market.
The Vice Chancellor, Professor (Mrs.) Smile Gavua Dzisi, said the inaugural lecture was one of a series of seminars and lectures being organized to re-orient and assist both faculty and students to adjust to the new mandate of the university.
Source: GNA