The Member of Parliament for Ahanta West Constituency, Hon. Mavis Kuukua Bissue, as part of her commitment to promoting human resource development in her constituency, has called on Takoradi Technical University for support. During a visit to the university by the MP, she appealed to management to support her Education Support Programme, which seeks to train youth from the constituency.

‎She called for targeted Technical and Vocational Education and Training, TVET, programmes, internship and industrial attachment opportunities as well as scholarships for both prospective and continuing students from the constituency.

“The vision for my constituency is to make sure the youth are thriving. If they thrive well, then it means Ahanta West will also thrive because I have realised that when you leave them or take your eyes off them, they tend to exhibit anti-social behaviour. We believe TTU can help us achieve this. I am going to start something that I have titled the Educational Fund Support for the youth to help them do programmes that will benefit them. With the TVET programmes that you have here, I think you could support us to achieve such an initiative, internships and attachments as well, and if there are any scholarship programmes that you offer for brilliant but needy students, we would appreciate that too,” she appealed.

‎The Vice Chancellor of Takoradi Technical University, Rev. Prof. John Frank Eshun, while acknowledging the visit, urged the MP to take advantage of the Tobinco Scholarship and promised to help with other scholarships as well.

‎He further said he would ensure the Industrial Liaison Office attends to the internship needs of students from her constituency following a letter received earlier from the constituency.

‎“The university’s mandate is to build human capital for the nation and since we are here, our main target is to try and help the region. As I speak now, we have the Tobinco Scholarship, which allocates 90% of the slots to students from the Western Region and 10% to other regions, so maybe you can encourage your youth to apply. That way, they will have the opportunity to benefit from that scholarship, and there are other scholarships on campus that we can help you with. The reason I brought in the Industrial Liaison Office is because we received a letter from you asking us to help your students get their attachments with industries in our catchment area. I will leave it to the Industrial Liaison Office to handle that,” he promised.

‎‎Rev. Prof. Eshun also seized the opportunity to plead with the MP to assist in the construction of the road leading to the Akatakyi campus and hostel buildings for students.

‎‎“We will also need your support as an MP to push certain things forward. One of them is the Akatakyi campus. The only problem we have there is the student hostel and the road. That is our main challenge. If we are able to get the road and hostel, the campus will be the best. Our plan as a university is to make the campus operational by January,” he said.

‎Pro Vice Chancellor-elect, Prof. Ebenezer Boakye, on his part outlined several opportunities for collaboration. He stressed the need to professionalise artisans within the constituency through targeted training programmes.

‎“As a Technical University, one of the things we want to strengthen is the professionalisation of artisans. So once you have artisans within your jurisdiction, one of the programmes we run is to give them more education so that they can be professional in their duties,” he said.

‎He revealed that the university, through its Directorate for Business Development, is working to collaborate with youth empowerment programmes to train people using the TVET framework. This includes structured progression from Proficiency I and II through to Certificate I, Certificate II, HND I and HND II levels.

‎“The Director for Business Development has been discussing with me the possibility of collaborating with youth empowerment programmes to train people using the TVET framework. So we have Proficiency I, Proficiency II. Artisans who don’t have the required certification can be taken through Proficiency I and II, then move up to Certificate I, Certificate II, HND I and HND II. You can come on board and engage us in these areas so that we can also build manpower within the jurisdiction,” he explained.

‎The Registrar of TTU, Dr. Moses Maclean Abnory, reiterating the Pro Vice Chancellor-elect’s remarks, said artisans can come in for training as well as benefit from community engagements for the constituency. He also advised the MP to ensure sustainability for these initiatives.