Tema, May 27, GNA-- The Minister of Education Youth and Sports, Mr Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, has pledged Governments commitment to support Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to ensure that it reaches its highest level.

He said all training delivery institutions would be placed under the National Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training to address the present fragmented bodies in TVET. He said Ministries, the Private sector, Non Governmental Organisations (NGO) and Faith-based institutions would be training under one policy, thus establishing a common standardisation assessment and certification.

Mr Baah Wiredu was speaking at Tema on Thursday at the launch of the 40th Anniversary celebration of the Tema Technical Institute (TTI), with "Technical education and training, a key to national development", as its theme".

The Minister said the TVET sector would have its budget so that appropriate funds would be channelled to that sector to resource it better.

He announced that the ministry is working out to ensure there is direct contact between the Polytechnics and the Technical institutions. He however, urged management of TTI to be innovative in its training programmes so that the graduates of the institute would be productive for the Ghanaian industry.

The Minister charged all Technical Institutions to work hard and justify the resources they receive and cautioned students to stay away from drug abuse and other social vices, which would offer them nothing good but rather destroy them.

The Principal of the Kumasi Campus of University College of Education, Dr Steve Sobotie, emphasised that national development does not begin from where products have been made available to the job market but from the "raw material" stage where children come to see tools and equipment for the first time.

He said if Technical Education and Training is adequately equipped to give meaningful expression to national development then there was the need for adequate funds to be geared towards the Production Unit Concept.

He attributed the high spate of armed robbery, drug addiction and prostitution to the vast majority of the youth who are unemployed. The Principal, Mr George Provencal, said the school which started as a Textile Training Centre with 22 students now has a student population of 1,439 with 1325 males and 114 females. He said the school has nine departments with three running Post-Senior Secondary School programmes in Textiles, Photography and Tailoring whiles the remaining six run Intermediate level courses in Electrical installation, Welding, Mechanical Engineering, Carpentry and joinery.