A former Chief Executive of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is advocating the scrapping of the National Service Scheme and the Youth Employment Agency.

Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng says the resources should rather be channeled into Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).

According to him, Ghana should learn from the Chinese model where there was a focus on set goals including investment in TVET.

He was speaking at the Conference of Commonwealth Association of Polytechnics Africa.

Prof Frimpong Boateng bemoaned what he described as inadequate funding of Technical and Vocational Skills training in the country.

He is of the view a sure means to developing Africa is by weaning the continent of the reliance of foreigners to explore natural resources.

Africans should be equipped through Technical and vocational training to lead in mineral exploration, he stated.

“We [Africa] still say that we have natural resources…natural resources have no natural owners, the owners are those with the skills and technology to exploit them, so we may have them in Africa, but they are not for us,” said the Prof.

He identifies technical and vocational training as the panacea to Africa’s challenge of failing to benefit adequately from its resources. He regrets the Ghanaian government has not been serious about developing TVET, for instances TVET receives only 0.9% to 1.1% of the already low budgetary allocation for education “and as for research, the allocation is not even enough to pay the scientists”.

Prof. Frimpong Boateng is challenging the government to scrap the National Service scheme and the Youth Employment Agency, which are bedeviled with corruption.

The resources should be channeled into TVET training and assisting industry to expand and them hire graduates to resolve the countries huge unemployment challenge, he suggested.