A Critical Study on the Impact of the New Vocational Educational System in Ghana: A Case Study of Assin Fosu and Biriwa Vocational Institutes

ABSTRACT

The need for Vocational Education as a result of advancing technology development worldwide has prompted many nations to re-examine their education curricular (Ginner, 1996). Ghana is no exception in this global phenomenon hence the introduction of the Educational Reforms programme with emphasis on vocational and technical education into Ghanaian school curriculum. Since 1987, education in Ghana has had series of setbacks because of lack of proper planning and the inability of Vocational Education to relate properly with the economy. For a nation to become fully developed it must make good use of science and technology. Qualitative research design approach was adopted for the study. The researcher used different methods to gather data for the research work. Questionnaires, interviews, observation and document analysis were carried out in order to make the work successful and its content reliable and valid. The investigation focused on relative importance of vocational education development to what extent graduates find job to support economic growth. The major results of the study indicated that students performance in vocational schools were appreciable. The outcome of the study was that, few of the respondents especially students bought their own materials which were used for their practical work. It was also revealed that, machinery were not adequate and even those available needed proper maintenance in all departments of the National Vocational Training Institutes at Biriwa and Assin Fosu. The researcher realised that, great effort has been made towards the industrial attachment and it was helping to shape the students a lot in terms of practical work. Even though the nation has benefited from vocational education, the impact is not so great and that the government needs to do more by putting in place special funds that will cater for vocational education. Industries should be made to plough back some of the profits to develop vocational education.