The
10th Congregation of the Polytechnic graduated students who have
pursued and completed various programmes, including business administration,
procurement and materials management and computerized accounting.
A
Special Congregation held earlier graduated Bachelor of Technology (B-Tech) students
and others who enrolled in the Polytechnic’s non-tertiary programmes.
Education
Minister, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, is not unconscious that both the
public and private sectors cannot employ all the graduates.
“Self
employment is therefore the way to go,” she says and has encouraged the
graduants to “explore self-employment as an option to public sector jobs which
are non-existent”.
The
Polytechnic has placed premium on entrepreneurship training and already several
graduates of the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development
(IEED) have set up their own businesses.
Rector
of the Polytechnic, Prof. Nicholas Nsowah-Nuamah, says the school’s Institute
of Technology has been established to specifically “facilitate the reform of
the informal sector apprenticeship training system by introducing short
training programmes in the application of modern technologies”.
The
Institute currently has partnership with three organizations in the training of
electronic gadget repairs, auto-mechanic, CCTV installation and solar system
design as well as training in aviation, computer animation, driving and fleet
management.
The
Polytechnic has also had discussions with industry giants to establish mutual
working relations.
But
whilst the graduates strive to be gainfully employed, the institutions of
higher learning are also hardest hit by the government’s freeze on employment.
According
to Chairman of the Polytechnic’s Council, Prof. Kwasi Obiri-Danso, the policy
on recruitment has made it difficult for the polytechnics to recruit new staff
or replace those who have retired or died.
He
has reiterated a recent call by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, for the
government to grant a special dispensation for them to fill vacancies of
academic staff.
This
has become more crucial as the Polytechnic is pursuing the goal of becoming the
foremost technical university in Ghana.
“I
will not be surprised if Kumasi polytechnic is the first or one of the first
polytechnics to be converted into a technical university next year,” said the
Education Minister.
The
first batch of polytechnics to be converted into technical universities will be
announced in 2016 when discussions on the criteria are concluded.
As
part of its strategic plan, the Kumasi Polytechnic has acquired a 301-acre land
at Kuntenase for the establishment of the main campus of the Technical
University of Kumasi (TUK). This is in addition to another 200-acre land at
Piase – close to Kuntenase – to serve as the Entrepreneurship Village of the
institution.
The
focus in the new order, according to Prof. Obiri-Danso “will be not to
duplicate what traditional universities are doing but to remain as a true
hands-on practical training institution where graduates will be trained to
acquire state-of-the-art skills for industrial growth and development”.
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