Prof. Ben Honyenuga with Evelyn Benyiwaa Yankson and other members of the Hospitality & Tourism Management Department of HTU
The Ho Technical University
(HTU) has started partnership programmes with some educational institutions in
Europe in its bid to become a leading technical and vocational training institution.
Apart from an exchange
programme with some universities in Europe, the HTU also won some GH¢500,000
grant to provide training for small businesses.
A statement by the HTU Vice
Chancellor, Prof. Ben Q. Honyenuga, said they were working hard to give meaning
to the technical university concept and “to train highly competent human
resource to the highest level possible through career-focused education, skill
training and research in partnership with stakeholders.”
He said the exchange
programme is geared towards modelling HTU after the German model of universities
of applied sciences.
Prof. Honyenuga stated that the
European Union had provided a three-year grant under the Erasmus-Plus Programme
for exchange between HTU and Rheine Waal University of Applied Sciences and
Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences in Germany.
The vice chancellor indicated
that two batches of staff and students had already been to Germany for the exchange
with the hope that blending the German experience with the Ghanaian idea “will
help us reach that point of unrivaled excellence.”
He added that the Skills
Development Fund (SDF) had also approved GH₵332,840 to HTU for digital
boost training for small businesses and GH₵247,320 for developing an
innovative tailor-made training module for tile layers in the construction
industry.
According to him, the university
has been granted accreditation to run a four-year straight Bachelor of
Technology degree in Hospitality Management for which admission of students
into the programme has commenced for the 2019/2020 academic year.
“There are five other
programmes awaiting final accreditation; they are Events, Leisure and Tourism
Management; Agro Enterprise Development, Information Communication Technology
(ICT); Fashion Design and Textiles and Food Technology,” he disclosed.
Prof. Honyenuga said HTU is
still the standard bearer in the field of hospitality training in Ghana when
its third year student, Evelyn Benyiwaa Yankson, won the American chicken
cooking competition for all technical universities in Ghana, organised by the
American Poultry and Eggs Council at the Flair Catering Institute in Accra on August
29, 2019.
He said the HTU would be hosting the maiden ‘Applied Research Conference for all Technical Universities’ from September 9 to 11, 2019, which would bring together local and international scholars to engage in an academic discourse.
From Fred Duodu, Ho (k.duodu@yahoo.com)
