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Engage youth in apprenticeship – Ablakwa

The Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has called on private business and professional organisations to provide funding and also open up their workplaces for apprenticeship.

He said those organisations needed to engage the youth to improve upon their vocational training skills and workplace experience for national development.

That, he said, could be done through their various corporate social responsibilities as well as purchasing products made by those organisations to generate internal revenue.

Mr Ablakwa made the appeal when he visited some beneficiary organisations of the Skills Development Fund (SDF), being spearheaded by the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) in Accra recently.

Some of the organisations visited were the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) and the Ghana Society for the Physically Disabled (GSPD) Chalk Factory.

The visit was to enable the minister acquaint himself with activities that were being undertaken by the organisations with the SDF allocated to them.

 

SDF support

COTVET in October 2010, launched the SDF to support technical and vocational training and strengthen skills development in Ghana.

It was also to help solve unemployment, especially among the youth, and to bridge the gap between those working in the informal sector as technical and vocational skills workers and those who went through formal technical and vocational education through the upgrading of their skills.

Subsequently, the PMMC in February last year secured a grant of GH¢584,000 to train its staff in diamond polishing and cutting, while the GSPD was given a grant of GH¢20,000 to collaborate with GRATIS Foundation to develop a modern moulding technology that would facilitate its production increase from 50 pieces of chalk in 15 minutes to 225 pieces.

 

The Visit

At the PPMC, the Managing Director, Mr Robert D Damptey, who received the delegation from COTVET, said the company saw the need to establish a cutting and polishing diamond factory for smaller diamonds in order to sustain business in the country.

He said it was unfair for the country to mine diamond and export it to other countries for cutting and polishing, “when we can do it here in our own country.”

Hence, the company, he said, sent four of its workers to be trained in India, one of the largest exporters of diamond, on how to cut and polish the mineral.

“They are back but we saw the need to also bring in some of the trainers from India to train a lot more of the youth here in order to provide jobs for them,” he said.

Mr Damptey expressed the hope that the training would help reduce the issue of unemployment among the youth and that, additional funding would help in the establishment of another polishing centre for bigger diamonds for export.

At the GSPD Chalk Factory, the National Advocacy Officer, Mr Isaac Toggu, lauded the support received from COTVET, adding that currently, production capacity at the factory had increased to 10,000 boxes per day.

He called on other organisations, especially the private educational institutions, to support the institution by purchasing products made by them.

 

Remarks

Mr Ablakwa expressed satisfaction about the work done so far with the grant and assured them of continuous support to improve training and livelihood of people in the country.

He further called for efficient management of the fund to ensure that the people, who needed the support most, benefited from it.

The Project Coordinator for COTVET, Mr Mathew Dally, said so far, about 71 organisations had benefited from the grants, while grants totalling GH¢38 million were expected to be approved by the end of the year for 150 organisations.

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