PARTNER AFRICA-PROJECT HOLDS PART ONE OF FINE PLANNING MISSION WORKSHOP IN KNUST.

The Partner Africa-Project is a consortium of Unternehmer Baden-Württemberg (UBW), Association of Ghana Industries (AGI). Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Arqum and Sequa. It aims at bringing together the partners of the project within the framework of the Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation between Unternehmer Baden-Württemberg (UBW) and Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana.

The Partner Africa-Project held part one of its maiden project planning workshop in hybrid mode where Sequa, UBW and CEO of AGI joined remotely while  KNUST, Arqum and Ashanti Regional Representative of AGI were in person at the KNUST College of Engineering Antartic Board Room on 3rd February, 2022. The Projects Coordinator, Leslie Joppa and the Administrative Manager, Yaw Obeng Dartey of the College Innovation Center were also present at the meeting. The part two of the workshop will be held on 8th February 2022 at AGI, Accra. The maiden workshop embodies the disscussion of project activities and schedules, important interim results, assigning responsibilities and the allocation of personnel, material, and financial resources, termed, the Fine Planning Mission.

The team from Arqum, Mr. Philipp Poferl and Mr. Maximilian Blaim paid a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor of KNUST, Prof. (Mrs) Rita Akosua Dickson and the Provost of the College of Engineering. The Vice Chancellor stated that, the vision of the project fits perfectly with the mission of KNUST which is to advance knowledge in Science and Technology through creating an environment for undertaking relevant research, quality teaching, entrepreneurship training and community engagement to improve the quality of life. She ascertained that, with the collaboration with the Association of Ghana Industries, the goal of the project to bridge the gap between industry and academia will be achieved.

The Provost of the College of Engineering was represented by Prof George Obeng the Dean of Faculty of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering. He mentioned that, the vision of the College of Engineering, to contribute to Ghana and the sub region’s industrial and digital revolution through excellence in Engineering education, research and innovation to serve industry and society is in line with the focus of the project which makes it relevant and timely.

The workshop commenced with a brief introduction of the partners. Mr. Senator Wolf introduced UBW, Prof. Jerry John Kponyo gave a presentation on KNUST, Mr. Twum-Akwaboah introduced AGI and Dr. Strohmeyer spoke about the role of Sequa in the project.  Mr. Poferl from Arqum took participants through the objectives, results and indicators of the project. The activities, milestones and responsibilities of partners were defined and discussed.

The Principal Investigator from KNUST, Prof Jerry John Kponyo said the project will be run through the Innovation Center of the College of Engineering. The target for KNUST and AGI is that, at least 100 students and 200 professionals from industry will benefit directly from the training the project seeks to offer. Additionally, KNUST will collaborate with AGI to execute at least 10 impact projects which will solve problems students identified while on internship with industry. It is hoped that, at the end of the three-year span of the project, there will be stronger collaboration between academia and industry and students will be better prepared for the job market.