Technical universities in the country have been urged not to deviate from their mandate and concentrate on quality entrepreneurs to fill the middle to high level manpower that the nation requires for progress.

The Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, gave the advice during the first session (virtual) of the 13th congregation for Bachelor Technology programmes of the Sunyani Technical University (STU).

She said the traditional universities thought about employable skills that they could infuse, when introducing new programmes, saying “you already have that, and you don’t have to lose it”.

A total of 389 graduates were awarded Bachelor of Technology degrees in Engineering, TVET, Applied Science and Technology, Applied Arts as well as Business and Management disciplines at the ceremony held under the theme “Technical and Vocational Education Training: the key to sustainable job creation in Ghana”.

Nana Amfo called on the government to recognize graduates of technical universities in their placement and create the enabling environment that would allow private persons to create sustainable jobs.

“Believe me, successful entrepreneurship is not as dependent on our course structure as is on the business environment. Now that it is abundantly clear that it is impossible for the public sector to absorb all the graduates that we are producing, the government needs to move the entrepreneurship talk to the next level of practicalization”, she stressed.

“We need to walk the talk and put our money, where our mouths are” Nana Amfo added, and reminded the graduates that “life of a technical graduate can be unpredictable, strenuous and exhausting. But all these provide moments of opportunity to bring true change and valued service to our communities and the world”.

The Vice Chancellor of the STU, Professor Kwadwo Adinkrah-Appiah, explained the university had obtained accreditation to run seven new four-year BTech programmes, which would be rolled in January, 2021.

They include; BTech Mechanical Engineering, BTech Civil Engineering, BTech Construction and Technology, BTech Hospitality and Tourism Management, BTech General Agriculture and BTech Fashion Design Technology.

These programmes, Prof Adinkrah-Appiah explained would be run concurrently with the existing 11 top-up BTech programmes at the university adding the institution had also received clearance for the introduction of five other four-year BTech programmes, while six others were pending at the National Council for Technical Education (NCTE).