Education in Africa: An Administrator's Perspective

It is widely accepted that Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), has the great potential of accelerating any country's drive towards development. Typically, there are two pathways for an individual to take, in pursuing a career in TVET. One is to gain admission to a Technical or Vocational Institution or to undertake an apprenticeship with a master craftsperson in ones chosen field. Countries like Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore collectively known as the Asian Tigers have successfully adopted sound policies in the technical and vocational training sector, which have resulted in the emergence of a highly skilled workforce.China has been able to create a new “united states” within thirty years. It achieved that feat through technical/vocational education. A good technical or vocational education, benefits the individual by giving him or her an opportunity to earn a decent wage, and live a dignified life. It also benefits the family by r...

One of the top headlines in most of the news media nowadays is about unemployment. This topic of unemployment has also taken a key space in most of the speeches across the country in public and private universities. A new report by the World Bank on unemployment in Ghana has revealed that about 48 percent of Ghanaians between the ages of 15-24 do not have jobs. (source: http://pulse.com.gh/business/unemployment-in-ghana-48-of-ghanaian-youth-jobless-world-bank-report-id5026856.html) The report, " The Landscape of Jobs in Ghana ", touched on ways of finding opportunities for youth inclusion in Ghana's labour market. “In Ghana, youth are less likely than adults to be working: in 2012, about 52% of people aged 15-24 were employed (compared to about 90% for the 25-64 population), a third were in school, 14% were inactive and 4% were unemployed actively looking for job. Young women in the same age group are particularly disadvantaged and have much higher inactivity ...

Imagine yourself two decades back, when you would have expressed your desire to choose a career in fashion designing like one of your relative, managing a boutique. You would have been scolded by your parents on your aspiration to become like a tailor. I also got scolded when i opted to take a stint into fashion training just after my senior high schools in early 1990s. It was an era when most of the high school graduates were interested or counseled to opt for computer science, medicine or engineering at tertiary level. But thanks to my parents as they agreed for me to opt for designing, which was then emerging in India in 1994 and lot of youngsters (both female and male) were opting fashion, textile and graphic design as full time careers. We suddenly saw a host of private institutions with international tie-ups setting up fashion design schools in major cities with good number of students opting to study there. Now i realise the mantra behind their success in early years. It was t...