Embrace employable skill acquisition for a secure future - youth urged

Ms Esther Matey, Project Coordinator for ‘No Business as Usual (NBU)’, a community-based organization, has said it is imperative that the youth participate in employable skills training programmes to ensure a guaranteed future.

She said the concept of skill acquisition in whichever field of endeavor, imbues the youth with the confidence to venture into self-employment for wealth-creation to make a positive impact on the country’s socio-economic development.

Ms Matey said the prevailing socio-economic challenges confronting the youth in Africa, especially in relation to youth unemployment, could be surmounted “when the younger generation decide to take their destinies into their own hands and embrace employable skill acquisition efforts.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview at Sepe-Timpom in the Asokore-Mampong Municipality, she said, youth unemployment remains the greatest threat to the continent’s progress.

In view of this, the NBU Hub in Kumasi, she noted, was currently working with the European Union (EU), to roll out various entrepreneurial and skills training programmes for the youth in the Municipality.

The range of programmes encompassed plastic recycling, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), waste management, and other vocational and technical skills.

Ms Matey said the project was necessitated by the high rate of youth unemployment in the Municipality - a recipe for the younger generation to engage in unproductive ventures and lifestyles.

The Ghana Statistical Services (GSS) estimates that the Municipality has about 30 per cent of the population being migrants, and the area has also, one of the largest youth populations in the country.

The NBU Project Coordinator expressed gratitude to Stratcomm Africa, an event organizing firm, which facilitated the screening of video documentaries on youth entrepreneurship recently to sensitize residents on the need to acquire employable skills.