Government To Provide 5000 Jobs For Ghanaian Youth In A Bid To Reduce Youth Unemployment

Five thousand (5,000) Ghanaian youth in the informal sector are expected to be trained by the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) with funding from the Youth Enterprise Authority (YEA)

This was disclosed by the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Hon Haruna Iddrisu at a meeting which saw NVTI and the YEA sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

According to the Labour Minister, the move is in line with President Mahama’s vision to support the development of skills of the youth and to prepare them for either self-employment or the world of work.

“Under President Mahama we have recognized the need to close the skills gap and to resolve the skills mismatch of our youth in the country.” the Labour Minister said.

The agreement will have the youth in the informal sector trained as artisans within three to nine months and with a certificate from the National Vocational Training Institute. The beneficiaries will have the opportunity of selecting one of the 10 trade areas for which they will be trained.

SIGNING OF MOU BY YEA & NVTI

The 10 trade areas include General electricals, Aluminum fabrication, Computer hardware, Carpentry, Plumbing and tile laying. The rest are Flora and balloon decoration, dress making, Hairdressing as well as masonry.

Executive Director of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI), Mr. Stephen Bismark Amponsah said the beneficiaries will be provided with strategic set of skills that are demand-driven not only in Ghana but also across the world.

“The focus of this partnership is to look at employability. We have had various models in the past that people were trained. Unfortunately we could not point too much to the success story. This one we are providing the skills and making sure that all those who will acquire these skills put them into good use to build the economy.” Mr. Amponsah said.

Minister of Labour, Haruna Iddrisu & Deputy Baba Jamal

He further added that the programme will be in four main parts: Training; the Assessment component; Cooperative Systems where the participants will work in groups. Finally the individuals will be helped with setting up a business after which there will be consistent follow up to ensure their businesses grow.

On his part, Chief Executive Officer of YEA, Mr. Ebo Beecham said to be able to fulfill their mandate of developing coordinating and supervising all activities related to youth employment in the country; his outfit has adopted the strategy of partnering with some agencies like NVTI.

According to Mr. Beecham a total of 8600 youth have already been trained and deployed under modules earlier this year. Among the modules are Youth in Health, Youth in Security, Youth in Coastal Sanitation, Youth in Agriculture and Youth in Afforestation amongst others.

The Youth Enterprise Authority is expected to support the National Vocational Training Institute with at least an annual fund of GH¢10 million.

By: Emmanuel Dzivenu/ Radio Univers 105.7MHz