Civil engineer and Fellow of the Ghana Institution of Engineers, Ing. Seth Oduro Yaw Ahene, is urging stakeholders to prioritise the inclusion of persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes.

Speaking on the JoyFM Super Morning Show on Wednesday, December 3, Ing. Seth, who lives with a disability, stressed that TVET opportunities can empower persons with disabilities to become self-reliant rather than resorting to begging.

“As I drive around, I get to traffic lights, and I see people, some even on skateboards, begging money from you. What I tell myself is that if we give these people the opportunities, especially in TVET… there is so much — electrical, mechanical, piping, instrumentation — we need people with special skills to do all these things.

“And I feel some of these people who are left to roam about should be given these opportunities. If we give them the opportunity in TVET, some of them will come out as fantastic welders. Somebody on a skateboard — what will prevent them from doing welding?

“We should make more efforts to bring up those with disability; we should not just leave them roaming the streets,” Ing. Seth Ahene said.

His remarks, made in observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, underscored the transformative power of inclusive education and skills training in uplifting lives and strengthening national development.

Below is the full interaction with him.