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A national conference on bridging the gap between education, training and industry in the world of work has begun in Accra. The two-day conference, which is being organised on the theme: �Achieving a stronger partnership between education and industry―The way forward,� provides a platform for a national discourse involving policy makers, the academia, educationists, industry, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the media, development partners, the informal sector and other relevant stakeholders on the challenges and opportunities presented by the educational system to industry in creating employment for national development. Apart from fulfilling the requirements of the Education Strategic Plan (2010-2020) (ESP 2010-2020), the conference aims to create the context for understanding and collaboration between the trainers and the users of the trained so as to address the concerns about the employability of products of Ghana�s education system through well-thought-out sustainable solutions by engaging with all relevant stakeholders. Addressing participants at the opening of the conference in Accra, yesterday, President John Dramani Mahama stressed the need to redouble efforts to ensure the production of graduates needed by the world of work. President Mahama, therefore, pledged the commitment of government to providing the necessary interventions to address the issue of graduate unemployment and called for greater collaboration between industry and academia in order to strengthen links between education and industry in the country and to enable graduates fit into the job market. The President urged industry and businesses to let the government and the various educational institutions know the skills and areas of training they required to enable educational institutions align their curricula to suit the demand. In an address, the Minister for Education, Hon. Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman, pledged the support of the Ministry of Education to all stakeholders towards the full implementation of the recommendations of the conference, adding, however, that the recommendations would first be subjected to further scrutiny that would eventually inform policy. Prof. Opoku-Agyeman said the Ministry looked forward to continued dialogue that would lead to concrete steps towards closing the perceived gaps between the world of learning (trainer) and the world of work (employer). For his part, the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Hon. Nii Armah Ashittey, underscored the importance of quality technical and vocational skills training and development in reducing unemployment by assisting beneficiaries to be self sufficient and gainfully employed in decent jobs, especially in the informal sector. Hon. Ashiettey noted that technical and vocational education had emerged as one of the most effective human resource development strategies that African countries needed to embrace in order to train and modernize their technical workforce for rapid industrialization and national development. He disclosed that the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations was in the process of establishing the Ghana Labour Market Information System (GLMIS) through which information gathered would be analysed and used as inputs for the development of new revised courses and training programmes, selection of equipment and learning materials, instructor information and for the guidance and counselling of students and trainees. He said the Ministry had been collaborating with accredited demand-driven skills training and development institutions like the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI), Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI), Opportunities Industrialisation Centre, Ghana (OIC-G), and the Integrated Community Centres for Employable Skills (ICCES) to train the youth and unemployed persons to acquire the requisite skills for gainful employment―70 per cent of the graduates of these institutions, he said, were gainfully employed. Hon. Ashiettey called for the amendment of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) Act to include Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) as beneficiaries of the Fund. He also called for the extension of the free Senior High School (SHS) programme and other subsidies such as the Capitation Grant to cover TVET institutions to ensure equity and make it attractive. He disclosed that the Ministry had developed a policy on Labour-intensive Public Work which would not only create employment, but also give the opportunity to the poor and marginalised in society to have access to decent jobs.