Akufo-Addo tours vocational and apprenticeship training centre in Berlin
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- Category: Development
- Created on Thursday, 14 June 2012 00:00
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Akufo-Addo tours vocational and apprenticeship...
The 2012 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, on Tuesday, toured the Professional Training Centre of Craftsmen in Potsdam, a day after he met with the leader of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr Angela Merkel and expressed to her his keen interest in “the German manufacturing model, skills training for artisans and apprenticeship programmes for the youth.”
Nana Akufo-Addo has made access to education, skills and jobs in a manufacturing economy as his main programme to transform Ghana and build a free and fair society of opportunities for every Ghanaian.
"We are not going to reinvent the wheel of industrialisation in Ghana," he stressed. "We are simply going to take tried and tested practices from across the world and customise them for our purposes."Nana Akufo-Addo sees "as a matter of both urgency and priority the need to make an exceptional case in Ghana to invest in education and skills of the youth, while creating space and opportunities for the private sector to add significant value to our economy."
The NPP leader is currently on a working visit in Berlin, Germany, and on Tuesday he was taken through how the German manufacturing and apprenticeship models have made Germany the industrial power of the world.
Dr Dieter Arlt, head of Germany's Professional Training and Promotion of Small Scale Industries, outlined to Nana Addo and his delegation, how the apprenticeship model in Germany works.
He expressed the view that most of Ghana’s unemployment problems can be solved if the model is studied carefully and amended to suit the Ghanaian situation.
Nana Addo and his delegation were later taken around the facility to observe how the various technical departments operate.
Later at the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Mr Heiko Schwiderowski and Dr Mark Heinzel, head of the Department for Africa and International Cooperation and head of Business Service, respectively, explained how the Federal Republic can be of assistance to developing countries focused on industrialisation, if their leaders are so inclined.On his part, Nana Addo explained that if God willing and the Ghanaian people consenting, he becomes president, his focus will be how his presidency can have a transforming impact on the lives of the Ghanaian people.
He stated that there was no reason why Ghanaians were poor and he was determined to make the necessary push to break that cross-generational chain of poverty.
"It is in our preparatory efforts to break this cycle that is why we have come to study some of your models to take back home for implementation if we win.”
He said Ghana is ready for economic success, provided the right leadership is in place to take the right decisions with the welfare of the Ghanaian people as the overarching principle.
On Wednesday, Nana Akufo-Addo and his delegation visited the German Federal Parliament in Berlin and later held meetings with the Commissioner for Africa as well as the Deputy Head of Department for West Africa.
Herbert Krapa
Source: The Statesmanonline
