Vice-President opens 3,000 free online courses

An integrated online learning (e-learning) programme to deliver 3,000 courses for the youth and professionals in the country at no cost has been launched in Accra.

The courses cover artisanal, entrepreneurship and technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

The government has partnered the Layden Educational Foundation, a social enterprise and brainchild of the programme, to deliver the courses free of charge to the youth and professionals.

To be based at the University of Ghana, the Leydon-Alison Integrated Online Programme Centre targets secondary school leavers, graduates, undergraduates, workers, corporate and business people, as well as other individuals.

Priority

Unveiling the programme last Monday, the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, said the government supported the integrated e-learning programme because it fell in line with its skills development and entrepreneurship programme.

He said skills development through integrated online learning provided a tool for tackling youth unemployment, while connecting with the ideals of the free senior high school (SHS) policy.

Substantial investment

Online learning, the Vice-President indicated, provided consistent and standardised training every time.

He added that integrated online learning was scalable and could be rolled to as many employees and students as the country required.

Transformation

Dr Bawumia described digitalisation as a path way to transforming the Ghanaian economy.

To that end, he said, the government had so far provided free WiFi for 700 SHSs, 46 colleges of education, 160 district education offices and 13 public tertiary institutions.

He said it would do more because digitalisation was the way of the future, as “we move into more online learning and also access to the Internet”.

From the Ghana Card, digital addressing system to mobile money interoperability and the Ghana. Gov, Dr Bawumia said, Ghana was on the move to developing an integrated set of databases to help improve efficiency.

The Executive Director of the Layden Educational Foundation, Mr James Boakye, said Ghana, as a developing country, was confronted with the huge challenge of unemployment, for which reason it required an educational system that equipped the citizenry with practical employable skills and relevant knowledge.

He said it was on that basis that the Leydon-Alison Integrated Online Programme had been introduced to transition teaching and learning in Ghana and integrate entrepreneurship skills.

Background

The Leyden Alison Foundation, the brainchild of a UK-based Ghanaian, developed the Leydon-Alison Integrated Online programme.

It is aimed at developing the skills and competency of both the youth and adults, using cutting-edge instructional delivery methods and with over 3,000 courses available for trainees to choose from.