Lack of Relevant Skills Dangerous In Fighting Unemployment-YEA Boss
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Kofi Agyepong, has attributed the country’s high unemployment rate to the unavailability of relevant skills.
Speaking at a job fair held in Sunyani on Wednesday, 14 September 2022, Mr. Agyepong called on the government and private stakeholders to invest in skills training for the youth.
He claimed that Ghanaian youth had abandoned skilled jobs and foreigners like the Togolese are rather making good use of the informal sector to make gains.
In his quest to support the claim that the youth abandoning the informal sector asked: “If Tullow Ghana Limited asks me to supply them with 200 trained and certified electricians today, will I be able to provide them? If AngloGold Ashanti requests YEA to provide them with 500 trained and certified industrial machine engineers, will I be able to provide them?
“If the Ghana Water Company requests 100 trained and certified plumbers for employment today, can I provide them? I met an investor friend a few days a; his major problem has been finding certified mechanics who can repair his company’s excavators, bulldozers, and crushing machines at his quarry site at Shai Hills. Whenever these machines are faulty, it becomes a severe headache for him. He can hardly put together a team of hardworking young people to service the machines. These are the real skills needed on the grounds,” Mr Agyepong highlighted.
Throwing more light on the unemployment challenge in Ghana, he made the participants aware that the youth must be interested in working in the informal sector.
He was of the view that the orientation to seek office work or white-collar jobs in the government or private sector is the cause of youth unemployment in Ghana.
He concluded by showing appreciation to the Ghanaian-German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration (GCC) together with GIZ.
Through the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the institutions have been unrelenting in their support for the fair.
He also commended the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations for their continuous support.