Youth say people due for retirement must go

Takoradi, July 21, GNA - The Western Regional Youth Group have at a forum held on Tuesday at which they appealed to the government to ensure that workers who were due for retirement left the scene to give way for the youth.

They said sometimes those who turned 60 years, which is the mandatory retiring age, did not proceed on leave immediately but stayed on either on contract or on secondment.

They complained that this blocked their chances of gaining employment even though they qualified for jobs and this had rendered many first and second degree holders jobless and idling at home.

The annual youth dialogue forum is the third and was organized by the Western Regional branch of the National Youth Council (NYC) and held on the theme "building regional capacities for youth mobilization and effective coordination in a better Ghana agenda".

In an address read for him the Western Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, stressed the need to reposition the National Youth Council to enable it to introduce innovative policies to

develop a programme of action that would benefit the youth as well as attract other stakeholders in youth development.

He called for the updating of its data on various youth organizations in the region for effective coordination and collaboration.

Mr Aidoo appealed to the leadership of the National Youth Council to incorporate youth programmes at their training institutions that would cater for the acquisition of skills relating to the oil industry while facilitating employment opportunities to address the challenges confronting the youth.

He appealed to the council to sensitise the youth on the government's block farming programme being spearheaded by the Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies to convince the youth to go into farming.

Answering a question as to how the youth in the region would have jobs in the oil industry, Madam Betty Busumtwi-Sam, Western Regional Deputy Minister who read the speech, told the youth to acquire skills to qualify them to gain jobs in the oil industry.

She said the discovery of the oil in the region did not make it automatic for them to be employed unless they were qualified.

Madam Busumtwi-Sam advised the illegal miners to register as groups to gain recognition from the government for education on the management of the environment to avoid land degradation as well as protect their lives.

Mr Emmanuel Papa Assan, Regional Youth Coordinator, said a resolution adopted at the end of the forum would form a work plan for the youth in the region.