Artisans need support from government: Garment makers appeal
Nine apprentices from the Juapong branch of the Ghana National Association of Garment Makers (GNAGM) in the North Tongu District in the Volta Region have graduated after three years of apprenticeship in dressmaking, tailoring and embroidery.
The sixty-fifth graduation ceremony held at the Methodist School Park at Juapong was on the theme: “We sew for global use.”
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The graduands, who were made up of three males and six females, successfully passed the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) examination sponsored by Rural Enterprise after the apprenticeship.
Government support
The Vice-Chairman of the North Tongu branch of GNAGM, Mr Nicholas Totime, in an address said the government needed to support the association in order to train more artisans for the creation of jobs for people.
“I want to emphasise that our association plays significant role in the creation of jobs for the youth. As much as the government is playing its role in the formal education sector, it must equally turn its attention to the informal sector such as GNAGM and the others who have also been helping in the creation of jobs for the unemployed youth.”
“We know very well that the government cannot do it all alone and needs the support of the informal sector to help. That is why we are also playing our part but we need the government’s support and intervention in many ways to train the youth,” Mr Totime added.
He said over the years, the Tongu branch of the association which covers Adidome, Mafi- Kumasi, Sogakofe, Sokpoe, Battor Branches One and Two, Mepe, Dzemeni and Juapong had trained over 1,500 apprentices who were also doing well in training others. That, he explained, had created jobs for many youth in such communities who are no more a burden to the government by way of employment any longer.
GNAGM lauded.
The Queen-mother of the Ameteve Clan of Juapong, Mama Gborlenyame II, who chaired the programme, lauded GNAGM for the good work done over the years in training the youth in garment making.
She said gone were the days that many people, for that matter the youth, created the impression that they could only work in the formal sector which was non-existing now.
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She advised the graduands to ensure they served their customers with reliability, truthfulness, customer care, respect, customer satisfaction and above all be principled and diligent in serving the customers so as to attract more.
Ms Joyce Kodzoga on behalf of the graduands expressed their gratitude and appreciation to their masters and mistresses for the patience and kindness exhibited to them during their three-year period of the apprenticeship. She pledged that they would also reciprocate same to those who would be learning from them.
