The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has launched a programme to provide skills training and job placement for 1200 selected youth in the Ahafo Region.
Dr Bawumia launched the programme during an event held at Goaso on Wednesday, November 23rd 2022.
The programme is the first-ever region-led skills development and employment creation intervention and has been dubbed the Ahafo Youth Skills Development and Job Creation Initiative.
The programme was designed and implemented by the Ahafo Regional Coordinating Council led by Hon George Yaw Boakye, Regional Minister, in collaboration with the private sector.
Speaking at the launch, Dr Bawumia noted that the youth make up a good chunk of Ghana’s population and hence need to be provided with skills and capital to set up businesses.
The Veep also called for soft skills and entrepreneurial training to be incorporated into the programme.
“The recent census conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service pegs our current youth population at 38.2%. On the positive side it means Ghana has an abundance of human resource necessary to drive our economic growth and that we are not in danger of facing shortage of skilled labour,” Dr Bawumia said.
“This however means we are under immense pressure to ensure that sustainable employment opportunities are created for the youth in order to keep them productive and mitigate the possible security threats posed by an idle youth population.
“It is for this reason that I am excited to join you this afternoon as we launch the Ahafo Youth Skills Development and Employment creation initiative.
“If I am not mistaken, Nana Chair, this is the first regional-led skills development and employment creation intervention and I convey my heartfelt congratulations to the RCC, participating MMDAs and to especially our private sector partners such as Newmont Ghana Gold Company Limited, Golden Team Mining Company and Supremo Wood Processing Company Limited, who have been great collaborators.”
Dr Bawumia urged the programme implementers to “inculcate entrepreneurship and soft skills training into the curriculum since trainees will be given the much needed start-up capital to set up their enterprises. Efforts must also be made to connect the beneficiaries to the market to encourage patronage of their services.”
The programme is designed to train 1,200 youth drawn from all six districts in the region in trades such as Welding, Vulcanizing, General Spraying, ICT, Fashion Designing, Building Construction, Auto Mechanics (Fitting), General Electrical (Auto and Civil), Carpentry and Joinery, Hairdressing, Painting and Decoration.
In addition, each Municipal/District Coordinating Council received a cheque of Ghs25,000 to cater for the training of the youth, with a monitoring team constituted to ensure the trainees go through the appropriate training.
As part of the launch, Dr Bawumia handed over welding machines, hair dryers, sewing machines, Aluminium ovens, sets of tools (auto mechanics, carpentry, electricals, pedicure, barbering etc), trowels, mallets and other tools to the various Assemblies to be used for the programme.
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com
