Offer better remuneration to attract master craftsmen – GTUC
Government has been urged to offer better remuneration and incentives to attract experienced master craftsmen, who can impart the needed practical training in the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions.
Mr John Sampah, Acting Deputy General Secretary of the Public Service Workers Union (PSWU) of Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), who made the call, said the development and promotion of TVET required the active involvement of master craftsmen who have the requisite employable skills and expertise to hand down to the youth.
He said this during the opening of the second quadrennial delegates’ congress of the Integrated Community Centre for Employable Skills (ICCES) division of the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU) in Kumasi.
The three-day congress is under the theme “ICCES, a force to reckon with in providing technical and vocational training in rural communities in Ghana”.
Mr Sampah stressed the need for the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to place premium on institutional allowances for hazardous jobs.
He said master craftsmen and workers of ICCES who are mostly in remote and sometimes, hard-to-reach rural communities, needs better incentives and the appropriate compensation to enable them give their best.
“ICCES is critical in the government’s agenda to provide employable skills to the youth in rural communities to reduce unemployment and rural-urban migration”, he said.
He said, some master craftsmen like carpenters, dressmakers, shoemakers and others who own shops are not willing to teach in the ICCES centres due to low compensation.
Mr Edmund Pinto, Head of Information Technology (IT), at ICCES said his outfit is taking proactive measures to expand training across all the regions in Ghana.
These measures include; revamping and investments in the production units across the country, to train more people while boosting production to generate income to support its activities.
Mr Pinto commended the staff of ICCES for the role they are playing in providing employable skills training to the youth of the country in-spite of the numerous challenges they face.
He encouraged them to continue to work harder to avoid being negatively affected by the ongoing staff rationalization assessment.
Source: GNA