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Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah, the Ashanti Regional Minister has stressed government’s commitment to invest in Technical Vocational, Education and Training (TVET) in the country, to create efficient and formidable human resource base required for sustainable national development.

He said it was imperative to harness talents, develop and effectively manage the skills of artisans to form a strong cohort of human resource, which would be leveraged to aid national development both within and outside the country.

The Regional Minister was addressing a durbar held at Nkwanta, a farming community in the Sekyere Kumawu District of Ashanti.

The occasion coincided with the sod-cutting for the construction of a number of infrastructure projects for the Kumawuman Institute of Skills Training (KIST), established in the community since 2003.

The projects, worth over GHȼ3,000,000.00 (three million Ghana Cedis), is being funded by the Government of Ghana (GOG).

They consist of an administration and a classroom block, a workshop as well as girls' and boys' dormitories.

Mr Osei-Mensah said the KIST projects added up to other government investments of over €500,000,000 (five hundred million Euros) in the country’s technical education sector.

These comprised the expansion and upgrading of the Technical Universities, two Polytechnics and 17 Technical Institutes across the country and cited these as a vivid demonstration of the current government’s commitment to the TVET cause.

Advising the students and the public on the value and necessity of TVET, he said artisans or those with TVET training such as Auto mechanics, Masons, Carpenters, Electricians, among others, were always financially independent.

The reason for this was that during their working stage, after receiving training, the sector always provided access to job contracts and revenue mobilization.

“I believe it is about time to change our mindset about TVET and motivate our children to accept education and skill training in the artisanal sector,” he added.