Craftsmen asked to upgrade skills to enhance work
The Executive Director of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) Mr Stephen Bismark Amponsah on Thursday called on master crafts persons to endeavour to upgrade their skills to increase their professional competence to meet the demands of the global market.
He said vocational training was becoming more complex and therefore needed qualified and competent professionals to manage the Industry .
Mr Amponsah said this at the closing of a five-day skills upgrading course for 29 master crafts persons in the Central Regional held at the Biriwa Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Centre.
The Participants made up of 10 wielders and fabricators,10 auto mechanics and nine hairdressers were taken through specific topics in their various areas, in addition to fire safety, time management, record keeping, insurance, first -aid and occupational hazard management.
Mr Amponsah underscored the important role craftsmen play in the socio-economic development of the country and tasked them to be mindful of their working environment, by making it clean and using the appropriate tools and equipment.
He said the training workshop was part of government’s policy for the informal apprenticeship training, which was to train master crafts persons who will be given accreditations that will enable students from polytechnics, universities and vocational institutes to undertake internship at such accredited workshops.
He said the Biriwa training workshop was the second in the series and that exercise would be extended to all the regions in the country and asked the participants to allow what they had learnt at the workshop to reflect in their work.
The Course leader Mrs Victoria Eyison thanked the NVTI for the workshop which she described as an eye opener and that it will go a long way to enhance their work.
She however, appealed for the extension of the course to many more master crafts person in the region this she noted will bring discipline and quality in their work.
Mrs Eyison appealed for the inclusion of Manicure and pedicure, advanced makeup and facial training in the course curriculum for the hairdressers and that the various tools and equipment should be provided for them to enhance their work.
She said acquiring the requisite training and skills without the appropriate tools will still not enable them to give off their best and asked the government to assist them to acquire the requisite tools on credit bases.
She said majority of them could not expand their businesses due to the difficulties they faced in sourcing funds from financial institutions.
The Course leader also expressed concern about the import of fake hair products into the country and asked that the necessary measures should be put in place to address the situation since such fake products were crippling their business.
The participants were presented with certificates of participation.
Source: GNA