The Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET), in partnership with Uniterra World University Service of Canada (WUSC), is promoting gender parity in male dominated trade areas in Ghana.
Uniterra (WUSC) is a leading Canadian International Cooperation Programme that improves the socio-economic conditions of people in 14 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas.
The collaboration is emphasising the importance of Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and its potential of anchoring key strategies for the development of the country.
Speaking at a working session on TVET Gender Friendly Tools, Dr Fred Kyei Asamoah, the Executive Director of COTVET, recognised the creativity of some females and how their involvement in TVET and skills acquisition could help improve the economic success of Ghana.
He said the gender friendly tool was important to the TVET sector as it helped to change the mind-set of females who perceived many lucrative trade areas as the preserve of males and urged females to take up the opportunities that the male dominated trades offer.
The Uniterra Country Coordinator for Ghana, Ms Clara Nyarkoah Anim, said it was the priority of her organisation to collaborate with COTVET to bring more females into the residential construction trades.
She said the partnership was, and would be, a win-win affair if the entire actors in the TVET landscape put their hands together.
Mrs Anim said this step was the beginning of a sustainable partnership with all its stakeholders.
Ms Gladys Perpetual Awudi Akai, a Welder and an Instructor at Tema Technical Training Institute, shared with participants the different derogatory names used for females who venture into the male dominated trades including welding and fabrication.
She said females could perform better in TVET and earn lots of money when given the opportunity.
She expressed her utmost joy and gratitude for being part of the pretesting of the Gender Friendly Tool because it gave her more hope and drive to pursue what she was doing to help with the development of TVET.
Ms Awudi advocated the improvement in policies for the promotion of women in male dominated trades.
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