Government to provide permanent employment for 2,500 PWDs
Government is engaged in discussion with the Ministry of Education for an arrangement to provide permanent employment to 2,500 Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) under the basic school computerization project.
They would be attached to schools to assist in technical challenges like repairs and teaching while RLG Communications has also agreed to offer employment to an additional 2,500 PWDs.
Mr Eric Opoku, out-going Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, said this in a speech read for him on Wednesday in Sunyani during a graduation ceremony of 2,100 PWDs from the northern sector.
Participants were from the Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions who had successfully undergone six months Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training.
The programme, organized jointly by Government through the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and the RLG Institute of Technology, forms part of government’s interventions to integrate PWDs into society and make them economically useful and independent.
The RLG Institute of Technology began the first phase of the project to train 5000 PWDs nationwide with ICT knowledge and skills.
The southern sector beneficiaries, comprising 2,500 PWDs from the Greater Accra, Volta, Eastern, Western and Central regions, graduated in September 2012 in Accra.
Each beneficiary was given a certificate and a set of tools and kits comprising magnifying lens, a set of screw drivers, rework station and tweezers free of charge to facilitate the setting-up their own businesses for economic gains.
He said government took a decision that no segment of the population should be left behind in this era of ICT, hence Cabinet gave approval for the rolling out of this initiative, the first of its kind, and specifically tailored at PWDs.
Mr Opoku therefore urged them to take good care of the tools by putting them into good use for their own benefits and others in their respective communities.
Mr Max Vardon, Executive Secretary of the National Council on Persons with Disability (NCPD) reminded beneficiaries that the training programme was meant to promote and support them for the socio-economic transformation of their lives.
He, therefore, emphasized that the journey to enhance their lives had started with their graduation where “each of them was expected to take ownership of the challenge of deploying the training and tools they had received for their own advantage and survival.
Mr Vardon said that could be realized in either manufacturing products, supporting school ICT departments or providing value-added business services to their communities.
Mr Roland Agambire, Chief Executive Officer of RLG, in an address read for him by Mr Isaac Appiah, Head of Training, RLG Communications, said the six months training was intensive.
He said beneficiaries were taken through a lot of subject areas including hardware, software, entrepreneurship, repair and assembling of mobile phones and computers and expressed the hope that they would effectively apply the lessons learnt to make life meaningful to themselves, their families and communities.
Mr Agambire said the second phase of the project was ongoing with the training of10,000 PWDs nationwide and indicated the continuous desire of RLG to partner government to alleviate the plight of all socially-disadvantaged persons in the society.
Source: GNA