Accra Polytechnic Launches 5 Years Strategic Plan

Accra Polytechnic Strategic Plan Launch

The Accra Polytechnic has outlined new pathways for the realisation of its vision and mission as a leading polytechnic in West Africa.

The new pathways are contained in a five-year strategic plan (2013 - 2018) for the Accra Polytechnic which gives the school an opportunity to reflect, recognise, assess its achievements and compel them to anticipate the future in order to adequately plan to deal with the changes that are bound to come.

In an address read on her behalf at the launch of the strategic plan in Accra, yesterday, the Minister for Education, Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, disclosed that the Ministry of Education, on behalf of government, had signed a performance contract with Accra Polytechnic in order for the school to improve upon its service delivery as well as enhance teaching and learning standards, aimed at financial independence from government subvention. Prof Opoku-Agyemang observed that the success of industrialisation depended generally on the availability of a technical workforce that was adequately equipped with practical problem-solving skills.

She emphasised that polytechnic education was to produce this critical core of technical workforce, adding that when polytechnic graduates became middle income managers, they worked with a difference because they were well-trained for the job market.

In a statement, the Minister of State in charge of Public Sector Reform, Alhassan Azong, hinted that the President, John Dramani Mahama, as evidence of his commitment to making Ghana a better place than he met it, had spearheaded the replication of such contracts as his major tool of governance.

Mr Azong pledged government's commitment to moving forward with this pilot replication in other subverted agencies, adding that the French government, as a development partner, would, on the second week of November, this year, hold a Review and Way Forward workshop to familiarise themselves with the progress of this programme.

He was hopeful that improved efficiency in service delivery and productivity would translate into a shared growth and prosperity that would be felt in the individual as well as the government purse.

For his part, the Council Chairman of the Accra Polytechnic, Prof Joshua Alabi, observed that the Council's objective was to provide strategic direction to the polytechnic as well as ensure that the aims of the school were realized.

For this reason, Prof Alabi said, Council would continue to ensure that all the statutory structures within the polytechnics functioned appropriately.

He said Council, in preparing the Strategic Plan, had undertaken extensive internal and external consultation around the ten thematic areas, namely Academic, Research, Innovations and Publication, Community and Extension Services.

The rest, he said, were linkages and collaborations, Human resource Development, Administration, Institutional Governance, Revenue Generation, Infrastructural Development and Financial Management.

He expressed the hope that the school would hold firm to its mission of providing life-transforming opportunities and experiences for its students, and bolster collaboration with other stakeholders in order to develop relevant and new market-driven programmes to meet industry standards.

He noted that the school was challenged and excited by the prevailing opportunities, and called on management of the school to create new demands and expectations and resolve to predict and respond to the fast pace of change in the next six years.

In his address, the Rector of the Accra Polytechnic, Prof Sylvester Achio, hinted that the Governing Council had supported the preparation of the strategic Plan in response to the changing trends across the globe, and to satisfy the requirements for the implementation of the performance contract that the Polytechnic had signed with the Ministry of Education.

Prof Achio said the Plan was aimed at meeting their developmental needs of the Polytechnic and to raise their standing in the international arena.

He said the Polytechnic aimed to become a leading centre of excellence to provide first class practical tertiary education, engage in quality applied and market-driven research, promote a culture of innovation and enterprise, and promote civic responsibility and learning among staff and students in order to maximize the values of their services to its stakeholders.

In addition, Prof Achio said, the Polytechnic would foster collaboration with institutions and industries to ensure quality teaching, learning and research in consonance with the needs of industry, improve upon existing sources of funds, establish new sustainable sources for achieving the strategic objectives of the Polytechnic and contribute to the improvement and upgrading of the quality of society.

He was hopeful that the polytechnic, with much effort, commitment and self-belief, would face the Future with confidence and pride.