50 Women benefit from a day’s skills training workshop
Fifty young women have benefited from a day’s skills training workshop on bead making and make-up at Agona Swedru, and advised to strive to add value to their lives by acquiring entrepreneurial skills in order to improve their living condition.
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The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Agona West, Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, gave the advice when she addressed the training programme at Agona Swedru.
She said it was important for women to acquire vocational skills in various trades so that through that, they could set up trades for their personal development, as well as play supportive roles in their families.
She has, therefore, advised them against being idle and expecting their husbands to provide everything at home, adding that such a situation may not allow them to be responsible towards their families.
The programme was a Development Women for Skills and Opportunities (DWOSO) initiative spearheaded by Miss Francisca Nancy Hagan who was among 120 participants selected from nine African countries, in the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).
YALI was launched by the United States Government as an initiative to invest in the next generation of African leaders.
As part of the training which is a short-term plan for the initiative dubbed ‘One skill reduce poverty’, the participants were trained in bead making and facials (make-up), as well as how they could brand what they had learnt in order to withstand competition. It was aimed at empowering women in the Central Region, as well as monitoring them to establish their own businesses.
Mrs Assan noted that acquiring employable skills by women was a major step towards self-sufficiency and, therefore, admonished them not to look down on themselves in life but rather believe in themselves so they could live dignified lives in the society.
Using herself as an example, she said as a teacher, she always took advantage of vacation sessions to acquire skills in cake making, event decoration, among others which had also become sources of revenue to her aside ftom her monthly salary.
She welcomed the initiative by Ms Hagan, saying it would go a long way to help many young women acquire employable skills to become self employed.
The Chief Director of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Nana Oduro Kwarteng, noted that the private sector was the engine of growth, hence the government would continue to create an enabling environment for private businesses to thrive, adding that: “Government has resolved to support the private sector towards the forward march of the country.”
Convenor
Earlier in an address, Ms Hagan said as a young entrepreneur, she had resolved to contribute her quota to the progress of the nation by empowering young women to become financially independent through the acquisition of skills in some trades.
According to her, the path she was charting would go a long way to reduce the high rate of unemployment across the country, particularly among women.
The Budget Analyst of the Agona West Municipal Assembly, Dr Eric Akobeng, who chaired the function, called for the integration of entrepreneurship into the country’s educational system to holistically prepare graduates for the job market.
He stressed that it was time to concentrate on skills development in order to bridge the gap between education and employment.