The Takoradi Technical University (TTU) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Sekondi-Takoradi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (STCCI) to develop and promote joint research and help build the capacities of the students for the job market.

The initiative would also assist members of the STCCI with the requisite strategies to develop their respective businesses.

The Vice-Chancellor of TTU, Rev Prof John Frank Eshun, indicated that the advancement in technology required that the academia and industry collaborated and supported each other.

He explained that the MoU would enable the two institutions offer consultancy services to each other and to exchange information, documentation and material where appropriate and to support each other in the area of manpower development.

“This MoU will also help to collaborate in improving industrial and career development services, trade and business development,” he stated.

He said TTU was poised to provide excellent and incomparable hands-on training and support system to stimulate the needed innovations capable of addressing the needs of industry and society.

He expressed his gratitude to the Sekondi-Takoradi Chamber of Commerce and Industry for choosing TTU.

Benjamin Nii Kpani Addy said: “Research is one of the things we do at STCCI and we intend to take it to another level and we decided to collaborate with TTU to enhance what each other is doing in the area of research”.

“So in the MoU are the general guidelines as to what we hope to achieve, how we hope to collaborate with TTU, what we at STCCI will be providing towards this collaboration and some ways TTU could also be supporting,” he said.

Mr Ato Van-Ess, the Chairman of the STTCI, said the collaboration between the two institutions would help prepare the students well for industry after school and help improve the businesses of STCCI members.

“We are delighted to collaborate with TTU for new opportunities, especially in the area of research and capacity building of the students which would enable them obtain the needed requirements for employment in the industrial sector,” he added.

In a related development, members of the STCCI have presented some personal protective equipment and items to the TTU clinic to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease in the institution.

The items included 200 facemasks, tissue papers, surgical gloves, hand sanitizers, antiseptics, one box of N95 nose masks, bed sheets, utility gloves, overalls and pillow cases among others.