Biriwa (C/R), Feb 21, GNA - The Manager of the Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Centre at Biriwa near Cape Coast, Mr Paul Ackon, has called on government to place emphasis on Vocational and Technical education to make it the solution to the country's unemployment problem.

He said with the unemployment situation worsened by products of grammar schools who did not receive any skills training to make them self-employed, attention must now be given to schools which produced skilled labour. Mr Ackon made the call at the matriculation of 371 trainees including 30 from Nigeria who were on a six-month Amnesty Training Programme at the Institute.

He said the Institute which was established in 1974, had produced over 6,000 graduates for the country's manpower requirement and the private sector of the economy.

He said the Institute's current enrolment stood at 1,166 comprising 839 males and 327 females.

The Centre Manager expressed concern about the mediocrity tag some Ghanaians had placed on Vocational and Technical Institutions speculating that it was less clever students who attended such institutions. He said for the doubts to be cleared, employers of graduates from the Institutions must produce performance assessment records on their employees to their schools to enable them to evaluate the relevance of their curriculum on the job market.

Mr Ackon said the Institute faced acute classroom and dormitory accommodation problems and appealed to the government to help to solve them= .. He also appealed to government to either relocate the girls' dormito= ry which was cited at the other side of the Accra-Cape Coast highway or to construct an overhead walkway to prevent the girls from being knocked down by speeding vehicles.

He said the Institute's activities with the outside world was restricted because it had no vehicle to make it mobile and appealed to the government and donor agencies to help the Institute to become mobile. Mr Henry Kweku Hayfron, Mfantseman Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), said the nation could not develop if vocational and technical education was neglected.

He said the Municipal Assembly was building a Rural Technology Facility at Mankessim which would be ready for inauguration by March 2011 and appealed to the trainees to take advantage of the facility to better their lot.

Mr Stephen B. Amponsah, Director of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI), appealed to the Institute's authorities and the trainees to cooperate with their counterparts from Nigeria to make their stay a success.

He said the NVTI had the privilege of training some Burkinabe, Liberians, Sierra Leoneans and Togolese and was expecting about 800 more Nigerians to be trained in the Amnesty Training Programme. Mr Charle Enchill, an Assistant Director in charge of Supervision at the Municipal Directorate of Education, asked the students to learn hard to achieve their future ambition.

He reminded them that there was no shortcut to success in life and that the best way was for them to set themselves targets and strive to achieve them.

Mr Adu Gyamfi Marfo, President of the Old Students Association, urged government to include vocational institutions in the allocation of facilities from the GETFund.

Mr Marfo who is currently a news-caster with YES FM at Cape Coast, pledged five bags of cement to the school.