THE GOVERNMENT is to establish a National Apprenticeship Scheme (NAS) as an effort to ensure wealth creation and employment generation in the country.
Under the scheme, apprentices who complete their training will be allowed to understudy their master who has vast knowledge and experience in the field of their choice.
The Deputy Minister for Manpower Development and Employment, Hon. Joe Donkor, disclosed this at the opening of a ?150 million vocational training centre at Adamusu, in the Jaman district of the Brong Ahafo Region.
The project, which was financed by Integrated Community Centre for Employable Skills (ICCES) is to complement government's effort at making vocational and technical education a national priority.
Donkor said the scheme is a follow-up to the unemployment registration exercise that was aimed at getting jobs for Ghanaians who are unemployed.
He stated that if the scheme is to be effectively implemented and pursued it would facilitate Ghana's exit from the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative in the shortest time.
Donkor was of the view that for a nation to have quality leaders there is the need to incorporate leadership training in the national education curricula and training systems.
According to the deputy minister, the government has promised to pay the salary of teachers and instructors in the community.
He assured the trainees that his ministry would supply them with working tools like shovel, trowel, spade, saw, pick-axe, etc., on completion of their training to enable them become self-reliant.
He urged them to form cooperatives after their training to enable the government secure them loans from the banks to expand their operations.
