Partnership between TVET Training Institutions and Industry: A Survey of Industrial Experience of Academic Staff of Accra Polytechnic

Abstract

Tertiary education in general and polytechnic education in particular has undergone a great deal of transformation during the last 50 years. As part of a sustained and continuous process of optimizing the quality of skill training required in the country, the Government of Ghana is in the process of converting the Polytechnics in the country into Technical Universities at the beginning of 2016 academic year. Industrial experience of academic staff is one of the key requirements given by a Technical committee set up by the government in the proposed bill. It is against this background that this study was conducted to assess the industrial experience of staff of Ghanaian Polytechnics with Accra Polytechnic as a case study. Using descriptive statistical tools, an analysis was conducted on the industrial experience of all the 189 full time academic staff of the institution. Key findings in the study are that, about 51 percent of the teaching staff have some form of industrial experience relevant to their areas of specialization and the average years of industrial experience for staff in the school of engineering is the highest. The study recommended amongst others, the need for a national governmental policy to incorporate staff industrial internship into faculty development scheme to help foster partnership between TVET training institutions and industry.

Keywords:   Industrial experience, TVET, Technical University, Partnership