British High Commission helps to build ICCES workshop for Otaakrom

Accra, Oct. 13, GNA - The British High Commission has helped to build a workshop for the Integrated Community Centre for Employable Skills (ICCES) for Otaakrom in the Ashanti Region.

The Otaakrom ICCES workshop project would help provide job training in economically viable employable skills to unemployed youth and adults in the local communities in the Atwima Mponua District. A statement issued in Accra on Thursday by the Commission said the Otaakrom ICCES had completed the workshop building with an office and a storeroom to serve two departments for both theory and practical lessons.

It noted that young people made up more than over 40 per cent of the population of many African countries. "These young people are a potential resource for growth and social development if gainfully and productively engaged. However, in many countries the contribution of the youth is constrained by lack of job opportunities."

Low level of literacy and the lack of skills are some of the contributing factors to the high unemployment problem. The statement said in 2002, management of the Otaakrom ICCES recognised that the lack of a workshop for practical lessons meant that students had to take their lessons under trees and they had to close anytime it rained.

The management therefore, appealed to the Small Grants Scheme of the Commission and other donors who together provided 44 million cedis for the construction of the workshop. The other donors were Ghana School Aid, Kumi and Co., Atwima District Assembly and Atwima Mponua District