NGO to equip the deprived with vocational skills
A non - governmental organisation (NGO) committed to humanitarian activities, Universal Light Media (Unilime) Foundation, has launched a project to empower the less privileged with vocational and technical skills.
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The project, on the theme: “Nsano Adwuma: A Tool to Individual Independence,” is aimed at training more than 200 such persons across the country.
VOCTECH Project
The pilot phase of the project is focused on equipping the youth in the Shaibu community in the Ablekuma West Constituency in the Greater Accra Region with vocational and technical skills for them to be independent and support the government's efforts to create jobs.
The project promoters said it would be clear after the pilot phase whether more people would be recruited for training.
Commitment
At the launch in Accra last Saturday, the acting Assistant Headmistress of the University of Cape Coast Basic Annex, Mrs Rose Austin Tenadu, called on all stakeholders in vocational and technical education to be consistent and committed because the country's development depended on a skilled workforce.
She said skilled work was a pathway to prosperity and personal development which would enable individuals to set up their own businesses.
"Our economy will grow faster and better, thereby creating more job opportunities in the country for our youth," Mrs Tenadu said.
She added that the country would fail if the curriculum activities did not match the job market, against the government’s intention to create more jobs.
Weak-minded
The Photo Editor of the Graphic Communication Groups Limited (GCGL), Mr Douglas Anane-Frimpong, who chaired the function, advised Ghanaians not to look down on vocational and technical personnel, but rather take them seriously and give them the needed support.
"Some people always think that those who learn vocational and technical skills are weak-minded and do not take them seriously, but it is a training that cannot be taken away from you because it is a secure job opportunity for the individual,” he stated.
“It is the appropriate skills required to better one’s life, because with those skills one is better prepared for active citizenship,” Mr Anane-Frimpong noted.
Less privileged
The National Project Coordinator of Unilime Foundation, Mr Michael Asare, stated that vocational trades were reliable, sustainable and secure as compared to white-collar jobs, the reason the organisation decided to empower the less privileged with vocational trades to reduce social vices in the country.
“This will go a long way to help the less privileged and the country as a whole,” he noted, adding that the project intended to improve vocational, technical and technological training as well as to promote made-in-Ghana products.
Mr Asare disclosed that in the next five years, the project would be extended to other regions to impact positively on the lives of the less privileged.
Background
Unilime foundation has been in existence for four years with the aim of empowering ordinary individuals to become competent professional in all fields, unearthing and helping the less privileged.
The organisation has made donations to several orphanages and organised seminars to empower the youth to better their lives.