74 PASS OUT OF TRADES SCHOOL (PAGE 14)

Seventy-Four young men and women have passed out of the Evangelical Presbyterian Trades Training Centre (EPTTC) at Alavanyo Kpeme in the Hohoe District of the Volta Region to join the job market this year.
This was after undergoing a three-year course in various vocational subjects.
Some of the courses were Electrical, Engineering and Installation, Building/Construction, Dressmaking/Fashion Designing, Catering, Office Practice/Computer Studies and Carpentry/Joinery.
At the passing-out ceremony, the Manager of EPTTC, Mr Seth Yeboah, said after their training, the graduates had acquired the necessary skills to stand on their own, form co-operatives or join various industries.
He lamented that apart from the salaries of the staff which the government paid, the cost of funding the provision of all other infrastructure for academic work was borne by the E. P. Church and the students themselves.
The manager of the centre said apart from the dormitories for both males and females, the classrooms and a bungalow for the manager, the centre was constructing an administrative office complex, which is nearing completion.
About GH¢25,000 has been spent so far on the complex, which contains an administration block, a library and a computer laboratory.
Mr Yeboah said the E. P. Church provided part of the cost, while the centre also used part of its internally generated funds to support the project.
He explained that the centre generated funds from jobs undertaken by the various departments.
The Hohoe Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Victor Herman Condobbrey, extolled the vital role of technical and vocational education towards the development of the nation.
In view of this, he said, the government had restructured the educational system emphasising technical and vocational education in order that by the time the students were out of school, they would have acquired a vocation that would make them employable.
“Tradesmen and artisans were regarded highly in society until formal education was introduced but they are not valued now,” he regretted.
He said technical/vocational education could not be underestimated in the country’s development, since the quest to attain a middle-income status by 2015 depended on it.
An appeal for funds to complete the administrative complex yielded GH¢350.
Deserving graduates were presented with various prizes.