Ghana to launch Youth Employment Strategy under $65m World Bank grant
The Management Development Productivity Institute (MDPI) in collaboration with the Goodwill International Group and National Youth Employment Programme is to launch a Youth Employment Strategy to assist the youth to develop livelihood enterprises under a $65 million World Bank grant.
Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, Minister for Employment and Social Welfare who was addressing the meet-the-press series in Accra, said from April to October 2011, the MDPI in partnership with Goodwill International Group organized training for 7,020 youth from universities and polytechnics on the two modules of the first phase of the Oil and Gas Training project.
“The MDPI has also trained a total of 743 persons from January to October, 2011 under its regular training programmes. Two hundred and seventy eight (278) attended regular training courses and 465 In-Plant training courses,” he said.
That figure, the Minister said, included 67 foreign participants from the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Uganda.
Mr Mensah said 13 new training courses as well as evening and weekend programmes had been introduced in the period under review.
He said the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) had partnered the Harvard Marine International Ghana Limited to establish an oil and gas training institute in Takoradi.
He said the establishment of that institute would enable graduates from polytechnics and universities acquire internationally recognized services.
The Minister said as part of government’s efforts to create more jobs, Integrated Community Centres for Employable Skills were established to fill a major gap in employment generation by developing young human resources in line with the poverty alleviation goal of the Ghana government through the establishment of community based vocational training centres.
“The centres train the youth in particular with the view of making them employable preferably self employed within and around their own communities. It currently has 62 centres in 50 districts in nine out of the 10 regions in Ghana,” he said.
Mr Mensah said the government was on course to achieve its Better Ghana Agenda and commended the Development Partners for their continuous support.
Source: GNA