Distance Education And The Development Of Technical And Vocational Education: Experience From Ghana

Abstract

This paper discusses Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) distance education programmes in Ghana. The paper starts with a review of the history and importance of TVET in the country. It continues to discuss the TVET distance education programmes of University of Education, Winneba and TVET distance education programme of the Presidential Special Initiative on Distance Learning (PSI-DL). The paper also takes a look at the implications of the TVET distance education programmes in relation to distance education principles. This has been done in the framework of readiness for change by stakeholders in education, competence of providers, the needed technology and quality issues. It was pointed out that support services are very important quality determinants of distance education. One of the recommendations is that the Government of Ghana needs to re-equip the existing technical and vocational institutions in the country so that they can effectively serve both conventional and distance learners.

Key Words: Technical, Vocational, Distance education, support services, training.