President John Mahama has urged authorities at the newly converted technical universities to stick to their core mandate of providing equipping students with hands-on technological education and desist from imitating programs run by existing public universities in the country.

President Mahama said this when he was addressing students and staff of the Koforidua University of Technology as part of his “Accounting to the People” tour of the Eastern Region.

He noted that the technical universities exist to provide education and training to the world of work.

“I will urge all universities of technology to stick to the core mandate of the technical university. The technical universities exist to provide technical and vocational training to the world of work. Students must begin to apply high level of competence-based skills for self employment or salary employment. We did not convert these new universities to imitate the existing public universities because in this conversion we are following the German model for the advancement of technical education,”hHe advised.

President Mahama admonished them to develop strong links with industry and business to support existing and emerging productive sectors of the economy with technical expertise, research and development.

Mr. Mahama as part of his visit to the school commissioned an ultra-modern engineering block funded by government.

It has five laboratories, 10 workshops, 65 offices, 6 lecture halls among other facilities.

The second day of the president's tour of the Eastern Region took him to Ofoase-Ayirebi where he commissioned an office complex for the district assembly, a library and an enhanced ICT centre.