ADVOCACY

VTF has been very instrumental in influencing policies that have led to the current dispensation of TVET in Ghana. There were a number of challenges that faced the TVET sector; lack of coordination, fragmentation, multiplicity of examinations, low quality of instruction, low self-esteem and unemployment, low image of the sector culminating into a negative perception. It was realized that without a policy framework any attempt to bring sanity to the TVET sector will not work. Obtaining a National Policy on Technical and Vocational Education and Training was a critical factor. There was a draft policy that had been put on the backburner for years. The VTF Programme constituted as advocacy team in 2001 to work towards enacting a law on TVET in Ghana. Some enormous work went into it but it was so much joy when in 2006, an ACT on TVET was passed to be called the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET ACT 718), which established COTVET as a regulator of the TVET sector.

To create a positive image on TVET, a lot of work was needed to influence policy that would trickle down into the practice. This is the reason why VTF Programme subscribed to using advocacy as a tool for creating attention in the TVET sector some results have been achieved but there is still the need to continue advocacy as a number of reforms are being implemented year on year based on government’s priorities.

VTF therefore organizes forums and seminars bringing stakeholders together to discuss pertinent issues that still affect the sector.

Some milestones in the TVET sector:

• An Education Sector Review Commission was set up by the government to look into the petition presented by the Advocacy team
• The Committee produced the report entitled Challenges of Education in the 21st Century
• In the report recommendation were made for TVET
• The National Education Review Implementation Committee (NERIC) was constituted by government to work out the implementation for the recommendation
• In 2004 a bill was presented to Cabinet on TVET
• For the first time TVET bill was separated from Education bill
• In 2005 VTF premiered the film the other choice to project the importance of TVET in solving societal challenges
• In 2006, the (“Whistle Brower’s) Act 718 was enacted to set-up the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET)
• In 2007, COTVET was established to co-ordinate all issues of TVET across the broad spectrum of formal and the informal sectors
• In 2007, the First COTVET Board was inaugurated. The first Director of VTF was nominated by the then President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency President Agyekum Kufuor to serve on the pioneering Board of COTVET
• VTF Secretariat hosted the initial COTVET Board meetings
• The First Executive Director of COTVET was appointed. It was a great relief for VTF. A battle well fought.
• Roll out of the policy of the Competency Based Training (CBT) approach
• 2012, the Skills Development Fund was established
• 2018 – Launch of the 5- year TVET strategic plan
• 2019 – Pre-tertiary Education Bill and Educators Regulators Bills drafted