The challenges facing technical institutes in practical skills training in the Upper East region of Ghna

Abstract

One of the important features of technical institute programmes is its orientation towards the world of work and with its curriculum emphasizing practical skill acquisition necessary for the job market. The main purpose of the study was to explore and describe the challenges confronting technical institutes in practical skills acquisition in the two public technical institutes in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Specifically, the researcher sought to; examine the conditions under which practical skills training is provided, find out the factors which affect the participation of the youth in the technical programmes, assess the provision of supporting materials towards practical skills training, assess the implementation of the entrepreneurship skills training and industrial attachment. The descriptive survey was used for the study. A sample size of 284 was drawn from the two technical institutes. Data were collected through questionnaire. The findings of the study revealed that skill training at the technical institutes was ineffective. It also established that supply of training resources was inadequate. Ineffective teaching of entrepreneurship skills and lack of Industrial attachment programme were also found. All these constraints were found to have negative effect on practical skills acquisition and therefore posed challenges for the technical institutes. The recommendations made included regular and sufficient supply of educational resources (human, material and financial) effective teaching of entrepreneurship skills, and priority attention should be given to industrial attachment.