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From left: YEA CEO Kofi Agyapong, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, Chief of Staff and Ignatious Baffuor Awuah, the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations at the event in Kumasi on Monday

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A STAGGERING number of 2,000 Ghanaian youth are set to be trained in tailoring to help make them self-reliant in order to realize their future aspirations.

This was announced by the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare during the launching of the Garment and Apparel Training and Employment Programme in Kumasi on Monday.

The programme, which is the latest module of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), would see the 2,000 beneficiaries being trained by selected seasoned tailors.

Per the programme, 500 Micro and Small-Scale tailors and seamstresses have been selected to train some of the beneficiaries for 12 months, leading to self employment.

Also, about 30 selected Garment and Apparel Factories have also been picked to offer 6 months on-the-job training in the various skills areas per the need of the company.

Akosua Osei-Opare said these Garment and Apparel Factories after the training period, would eventually absorb the trainees into their workforce to enhance their future.

She said the launching of this latest YEA module, which would tackle the youth employment problem in the country, was a testimony that the NPP government cared about the youth.

“I’m more emotional about this latest module as it shows that the President Akufo-Addo’s administration is committed to solving unemployment problem”, she stated.

Upon completion of the training, she said, the beneficiaries would be given free startup tools to start their own businesses and become self-reliant and contribute to national growth.

In this regard, Akosua Osei-Opare admonished the beneficiaries to take the training seriously so that the government’s investment would not go down the drain.

According to her, the government would bear all the cost of the training programme, including paying monthly stipend to the beneficiaries to support them during the training period.

The Chief of Staff also charged the master craftsmen (trainees) to offer topnotch training to the beneficiaries so that they could also train others in the near future.

Akosua Osei-Opare lauded the management of YEA for carrying out their duties to perfection, adding that calls by YEA officials for more government support was in the right place.

“YEA is on the right path so far in carrying out your core duties by training our youth so your calls for more funding from government to support your activities is in the right direction.

“From here, I will inform the president, who is passionate about youth employment programmes, that you are doing a fantastic job so he should respond to your needs”, she assured.

On his part, Kofi Agyapong, the YEA CEO, appealed to government to increase its financial support for YEA to enable them roll out more programmes for Ghanaian youth.

He lamented that even though YEA was perfectly carrying out its duties of providing jobs for the youth, government support to his outfit continued to reduce every year.

“YEA has proven to be efficient in job creation for the youth under this Akufo-Addo administration, yet every year the budget for YEA gets reduced and it is worrying”, he bemoaned.

According to Kofi Agyapong, YEA under his able
management, has over the past year, worked assiduously create jobs for some of the unemployed youth in the state.

For instance, he announced that 6000 community health workers, 15000 community protection assistants, 800 artisans have all been recruited to enhance their livelihoods.

The YEA CEO also disclosed that 4000 farm workers have also been recruited to contribute to help boost cocoa production in the country, noting that YEA was on the right path.

Kofi Agyapong said YEA has the capacity to do more to help recruit and train more unemployed Ghanaian youth, reiterating his call to government to pump more cash to support the activities of YEA.

Ignatious Baffuor Awuah, the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, said artisanship has been realized to have a great future in these modern times so the youth should patronize it.

He commended YEA for launching the Garment and Apparel Training programme, adding that YEA would launch another massive programme for other disciplines for the youth in Ghana soon.

FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr.,
Kumasi