REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY DR WINFRED NII OKAI HAMMOND
GHANA’S AMBASSADOR TO THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
FIRST WORLD VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE
THEME: CHINA-AFRICA COOPERATION ON “VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT IN THE POST-PANDEMIC ERA- NEW CHANGES, NEW WAYS AND NEW SKILLS”
Tianjin, 18-20 August, 2022
- Your Excellency Mad. Sun Chunlan, Vice Premier of The State Council of the People’s Republic of China,
- Your Excellency Mr. Li Hongzhong, Secretary of Tianjin Municipal Party Committee
- Your Excellency Mr. Huai Jinpeng, Minister of Education of the People’s Republic of China
- Your Excellency Mr. Zhang Gong, Mayor of Tianjin Municipal People’s Government
- Excellencies Ambassadors accredited to the People’s Republic of China,
- Distinguished Scholars
- Heads of relevant state departments from the
Ministry of Education, PRC, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology,
the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs,
the State Administration of Taxation,
the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration of The State Council,
the National Rural Revitalization Administration and other relevant State departments,
- Heads of International Organizations,
- Excellencies, Scholars, Academicians, Distinguished Participants online,
- Members of the Press,
- Distinguished Invited Guests,
- Ladies and gentlemen
- It is a great privilege and an honour for me to be part of the First World Vocational and Technical Education Development Conference to make these remarks. The timing of this conference and the choice of the theme; China-Africa Cooperation on “Vocational and Technical Education Development in the Post-pandemic Era- New Changes, New ways and New Skills”, couldn’t have been better, as global economies are still struggling to cope with the negative impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.
- The overall objective of the Vocational and Technical Education, otherwise referred to as Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) policy, is to provide emerging and developed economies with qualified and competitive workers and to train citizens able to participate in sustainable growth and poverty reduction by ensuring training opportunities to all social groups without discrimination.
- China is the African continent’s largest trading partner and source of foreign direct investment. Through the Belt and Road Initiative, and the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) initiatives, China has invested tangibly in Africa’s infrastructural development, including railways, ports, airports, hospitals, water, agriculture, sanitation, education, telecommunications and energy related infrastructures.
- These investments have helped spur infrastructure development and economic growth. However, the influx of technologies associated with these initiatives, exposed the lack of qualified advanced experts in many African countries, and calls for reforms to institutionalize Technical Vocational Education Training in African.
- For instance, the Chinese company that constructed the Atuabu gas processing plant in Ghana in 2012, needed qualified argon/ acetylene welders. The reported unavailability of qualified local welders with the required skillset, compelled the Chinese construction company to import a plane load of 200 welders to Ghana to enable them execute the contract. Secondly, I was informed yesterday by some Chinese friends of mine, that the Chinese-funded railway between Zambia and Tanzania, is facing many challenges due to unavailability of requisite local expertise.
- Industries in many African countries have identified the shortage of an adequately educated workforce as a major constraint to further growth and development.
- Distinguished Participants, recent findings from reputable international research outfits strengthen existing evidence that Chinese firms investing in Africa contribute to substantial job creation for African workers.
- However, most of the jobs created are at the low- and semi-skilled levels. It was also found out that the numbers of jobs created and the extent to which they are localised vary according to country- and sector-specific characteristics, but overall, the contribution to job creation is considerable.
- In addition, Chinese companies are found to build the skills of host countries’ workers and usually provide some form of training to local workers (to varying degrees of formality), but more complex technical and managerial tasks often remain with Chinese experts.
- Ladies and Gentlemen, it is refreshing to note that the contribution of Chinese-built vocation institutions upgrade projects in Ghana and other West African countries by AVIC-INTL Project Engineering Company, is a testament to China-Africa efforts at unearthing the development of vocational and technical education. But you will all agree with me that a lot more is needed.
- Excellencies, before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and other global challenges, the last decade or so, saw Africa experiencing a significant growth as a result of the rapid transformation and foreign investments which helped to boost the demand for greater technological skills.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted the labour market and education landscape significantly. Around the world, measures to slow the spread of the virus included closing public institutions, schools and workplaces.
- Like many other institutions, TVET shifted to online learning to ensure that students continued to have access to education and training. However, the practical and hands-on nature of TVET meant that institutions faced challenges adapting teaching to online modes and equipping teachers and students to cope with the changing environment.
- The crisis has adversely impacted labour markets and led to deepening uncertainty, vulnerability of employment, and inequality. Furthermore, measures to improve efficiency and profitability in the economic recovery have often led to jobless growth.
- The pandemic exposed weaknesses in TVET institutions and systems, but the scale of innovation and experimentation also showed that rapid change is possible. Together, we can change challenges into opportunities.
- Responding to the pandemic involves preventing and remediating dropout and reversing learning losses as well as reskilling workers to strengthen their employability in a labor market that may have structurally changed. At the same time, many TVET systems worldwide still need to address important structural gaps that persistently weakened their performance even before the pandemic.
- Dear Participants, 2020 was a year when the world was panic-stricken by the pandemic, but also one of intensive creativity.
- As economies, schools and training centers reopen, there is an urgent need for skills development mechanisms that are tailored both to students’ individual needs and to the changing skill needs on the labor market, with digital skills, socioemotional skills, higher-order cognitive skills, and adaptability being valued more than ever. This opens a window of opportunity as stakeholders realize the potential and need for structural reforms of TVET for better skills development and better jobs.
- In this era of the 4th Industrial revolution, many are scared of their jobs being taken over by machines, posing more threats of unemployment and civil conflicts to governments. But at the same time, tremendous opportunities exist for the formation of more intensive Public-Private-Partnerships to build the capacities required to transform Technical and Vocational Education Training towards an effective e-commerce, digital governance, green economy technologies, high end technologies for the 4th Industrial Revolution, etc.
- With technical revolution and innovations in science and technology, labor market needs have significantly evolved. New challenges must be met in order to match the education proposed with vocational demands. In that regard, several countries must reform their education system, with a view to training the youth to meet national, regional or international market needs focusing on vocational and technical education.
- Your Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, as the world is faced with serious threats, challenges and uncertainties, there is the need to strengthen the cooperation between Africa and China in taking advantage of innovations and technological opportunities enshrined in the FOCAC 2021 Agenda together with the nine programmes announced by President Xi Jinping at the Dakar Conference in November 2021. This gives hope towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and Africa’s Agenda 2063, “the Africa we want”.
- Let me reiterate that the implementation of a China-Africa Cooperation plan towards education, particularly, vocational and technical development must take centre stage in global economic transformation especially in this post Covid-19 economic recovery era.
- Long live China-Africa Cooperation
- With these words, I wish to express profound gratitude to the organizers for this opportunity and thank all you for your kind attention.
