Training of youth is to encourage individual initiative- Director

Yamfo (B/A), Aug. 14, GNA- Mr George Fred Kwabla Yevu, Acting Director of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) said on Thursday that training unemployed youth to acquire vocational and technical skills was in line with government's commitment in promoting the private sector.

It is also to encourage individual initiative so that the productive sector of the economy can be left in capable hands outside governmental structure, he said.

The acting Director was speaking at the passing out of 45 trainees of the Vocational Training Centre at Yamfo in the Tano District of Brong Ahafo after six months training under the government's Skills Training and Employable Placement (STEP) programme.

The graduates, who trained in carpentry and joinery, masonry, dressmaking and electrical were among the unskilled youth registered recently under STEP by the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment.

Mr Yevu said economic growth was critical for sustainable development and must be accompanied by policies and programmes to facilitate income and employment generation for poor people.

In an address read for him, Nana Kwadwo Seinti, Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, said the high level of unemployment and under-employment in the country was a problem that the government was determined to tackle under the Poverty Reduction Strategy.

He said the Inter-Ministerial Committee in Action for Employment Generation (AFEG) was established to focus on employment generation since the government could not effectively tackle the problem if the unemployed youth were not trained.

Through AFEG, Government has mapped out a programme to train several thousands of jobless youth in various employable skills over three years, Nana Seinti said.

The Regional Minister said apart from skills training, a large number of the unemployed and under-employed were being assisted to find jobs in addition to the provision of entrepreneurial training for those wishing to establish their own businesses.

He said to help eliminate the problem of lack of capital to set up businesses, "the government is in the process of channelling a portion of the Emergency Social Relief Fund through rural banks to support them."