The National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) will from January 2008 introduce three compulsory subjects to make its products more marketable. The subjects are Mathematics, English and Entrepreneurial Skills which hitherto were optional. They will now be formalised and trainees would be assessed as part of their vocational training qualifications from June 2009. The Director of the NVTI, Mr Stephen B. Amponsah, who made this known at a media briefing in Accra, said the three subjects would also make its products self-reliant and enable them to pursue higher learning in tertiary institutions. He said the decision became necessary after a careful research was conducted into the teaching and learning of technical and vocational skills in the country. He said the research exposed the challenges of students who went into vocational training and, therefore, the Mathematics and English subjects had been structured in a way that they would compare favourably with those taught in Senior High Schools. He said Mathematics would be taught in the first one and a half years of the students entry into any vocational training centre while the other two subjects would be taught for the whole four years of the students education. Mr Amponsah said the quest to improve vocational training as a result of the socio-economic orientation of society had made it necessary for the institute to respond accordingly, saying that the introduction of the three subjects formed part of the requirements of the new educational reform, which, according to him, responded to the country's quest to improve skills training. He noted that currently there were 38 government-owned NVTIs across the country with over 600 privately-owned institutions. Most instructors for the 38 institutions had so far been trained for all the three subjects and the private institutions were also making their instructors available for training. Presently, Mr Amponsah said, the NVTI conducted external examinations for over 30,000 vocational training granduands and 8,000 secretarial graduands in 81 areas annually. Source: Daily Graphic