Accra Technical University, Food and Drugs Authority to Develop Curricula for Qualified Supervisors

Accra Technical University (ATU) and the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) have collaborated to develop four curricula for qualified supervisors’ course for Micro, Medium and Small Scale Enterprises (MMSEs) in food, cosmetics, herbal and household chemicals industry as part of the grant contract with Skills Development Fund (SDF), COTVET.

In a Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop from Tuesday, August 25 to Wednesday, August 26, 2020 at the ATU Lodge, Mr. Kwame Dei Asamoah-Okyere, Principal Regulatory Officer of the Biosafety Unit, FDA, explained to participants that ‘‘as part of FDA’s support to local industry, we are developing four independent curricula for food, herbal, cosmetics and household chemicals. This is to ensure that Micro, Medium and Small Scale Enterprises in these categories hire the requisite people to supervise their operations as mandated by the Public Health Act 2012, Act 815.’’

Sections 106 and 115 of Act 815 instructs the strict supervision of food, herbal, cosmetics and household chemicals production for sale. 

Vice-Chancellor of Accra Technical University, Prof. Samuel Nii Odai in his opening remarks applauded the FDA and the other collaborators for ‘‘this is a fantastic idea, and we need to do more of this’’. He encouraged more cross-bridging among industry, academia, the private sector and government that culminates into such worthwhile ventures.

The workshop involved presentations, discussions and brainstorming sessions in which participants were divided into groups to deliberate on the most significant components in administering the curricula to drive deeper understanding and to achieve the course objectives.

Bringing the workshop to a close, Dr. Alice Constance, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences of ATU said, ‘‘for me, I see this workshop as timely. The collaboration wouldn’t have been any better if you had not come to ATU because right from our vision to human resources, we are there.’’ She added that the implementation of the curricula will take safety in the food, herbal and cosmetics value chain a notch higher.

After the curricula development, validation and training, ATU will be the training venue for the qualified supervisors’ course. The hosting of the ToT at ATU will strengthen cooperation with FDA as preparations are ramped-up to run the qualified supervisors course at ATU.

The FDA hopes to set up regional training centres to support industry.