Ho, Jan. 9, GNA - The Ho Polytechnic proposes to start a new academic programme to upgrade technical and vocational students in the Volta Region with good grades to enable them pursue the Higher National Diploma.

Known as the "Bridging Course," the six months to one-year programme seeks to prepare the students theoretically in their disciplines as well as their abilities in mathematics, English Language and science needed to pursue the HND.

Dr Komla Agbeko Dzisi, the principal of the Polytechnic, announced the policy initiative when answering questions from journalists to mark his first 100 days as Principal of the polytechnic.

He took over from Dr Mawusi Afeti who retired last year after 13 years in office.

Dr Dzisi said the policy initiative was in accord with "our mission of producing engineering based expertise" without prejudice to the pursuit of humanity-based courses.

The trend has been that 60 percent of the student population tended to pursue humanities based disciplines as against 40 percent in science and technology related disciplines.

Dr Dzisi said the polytechnic was also consulting with the University of Education Winneba (UEW) for the Polytechnic to establish a department to train technical teachers for basic schools. Regarding the running of the Bachelor in Technology programme, he said the first batch of 49 students would be matriculated on January 26. Out of the number, 25 men and five women would pursue the 18 months course in automobile engineering while 19, mainly women, would pursue courses in hotel, catering and management studies.

Dr Dzisi said the polytechnic has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Air College in Scotland and the Gambia Technical Institute for staff and student exchange programmes, collaborative research and continuous training of staff with support from the European Union. He said the polytechnic was developing a 'Tracer Study' to monitor the performance of its graduates in industry and use the outcomes of the studies as guide for further improvement and innovation. As to whether the Polytechnic could become a University, Dr Dzisi said that was possible. 09 Jan 07