DTI moves to transform TVET in Ghana-Cuts sod on $28m Multi-Skills Campus

Design and Technology Institute (DTI) cut the sod yesterday in the Eastern Region for the construction of its DTI Berekuso Multi-Skills Campus. The ceremony heralded the beginning of an 11-acre development valued at $28 million, which would be executed in four phases.

The first phase is partially funded by a €3 million grant from the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa's Development (AUDA-NEPAD). The first phase is scheduled for completion within 24 months and is expected to welcome its inaugural cohort for the 2028/2029 academic year. Upon full completion, the campus will have the capacity to train up to 3,500 learners annually. The Berekuso campus will introduce four new programmes: industrial plumbing, industrial electricals, cleaning sciences, and agricultural mechanisation, alongside existing disciplines such as welding and fabrication, design, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The first phase of development will include two three-storey academic blocks, a two-storey administration block, a 160-booth welding and fabrication workshop, advanced non-destructive testing (NDT) labs, anchor factory spaces, supporting infrastructure, community facilities, an amphitheatre and a student centre.

Constance Swaniker, the founder of DTI, described the project as a transformational response to the skills gap she had witnessed on factory floors across the country. She emphasised that the institution was "born not in theory, but in practice" and characterised the work as not optional but a calling. Ms. Swaniker said that DTI had 160 active industry partners supporting training, internships, and employment across seven universities. George Opare Addo, the Minister of Youth Development and Empowerment, underscored the importance of viewing young people not as a problem or a