The Institute of Teacher Education and Continuing Professional Development (ITECPD), University of Education, Winneba (UEW), is all set to introduce two new post-graduate programmes for the 2022 academic year.
The two new programmes, M.Ed in Educational Administration and Management, and M.Ed in Counselling Psychology, are already being run on the Sandwich Mode by the Faculty of Educational Studies. However, as a result of high demand from potential Distance Education applicants and high pressure on the Sandwich Mode, ITECPD is adapting the programmes to run on the Distance Mode as well.
This was disclosed in an opening remark by the Director of ITECPD, Prof. Dandy George Dampson, at a reviewer workshop for Centre Coordinators and Lecturers on the Mentorship Programme. The workshop was held from Monday, 11th to Wednesday, 13th January, 2021, at Gloriaka Hotel in Winneba.
“To remain competitive on the global market, we need to rebrand our Mentorship Programme while looking forward to adapting and introducing two new market and demand driven Programmes. My dear Participants, we can never achieve these without you, which is why we have invited you here today.
“For UEW and for that matter ITECPD to be competitive and survive in the ever-changing global market, we need to restructure, upgrade and update our knowledge, skills, values and practices as well as standardise our assessment processes. Through this workshop, we invite each and every one of you to become active participants to re-strategise for re-opening amid the COVID-19 pandemic and to develop two new Post-graduate programmes for the 2022 academic year,” he reiterated.
Prof. Dampson implored participants who were invited on the basis of their competence, knowledge, skills and experience in teaching and learning to complement the workshop with their special attributes to enable it achieve the intended objectives.
“We invited you here to dialogue, critique and help ITECPD to sharpen, refresh and develop a comprehensive mechanism in teaching amid the COVID-19 pandemic, restructure the Mentorship Programme and to adopt two new Programmes for 2022 academic year. I encourage you to explore, critique, be analytical and contribute positively to achieve the goal of this workshop,” he emphasised.
The Director, Institute for Distance Education and e-Learning (IDeL), Prof. Francis Owusu Mensah, who welcomed participants on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, Rev. Fr. Prof. Anthony Afful-Broni, urged attendees to be enthusiastic in their participation.
“Normally, workshops that do not last for long; workshops that last for two or three days tend to be very intensive. As a result of that, we don’t encourage roaming and gallivanting here and there for loss of valuable instructional hours, because the time is limited. If you leave for even two minutes, you will miss extremely vital information,” he admonished.
Also present were the Dean, Faculty of Educational Studies, Prof. Samuel Hayford; Deputy Registrar, ITECPD, Mr. Steve v. Kamassah; Head, Department of Quality Assurance and Assessment, Prof. Obed Acquah; Head, Department of Continuous Professional Development (CPD), ITECPD Coordinator of Graduate Programmes, Coordinators of Winneba, Ho and Sekondi Study Centres amongst others.