The National Youth Authority (NYA) has started a pilot project on Skills Towards Employability and Productivity (STEP) Project in the South Tongu District and the Hohoe Municipality in the Volta region.
The aim is to equip the youth with relevant skills that would enable them to become economically independent.
The project, which has enrolled 20 youth in the South Tongu District would train them (youth) in five main disciplines namely; dressmaking, hairdressing, cosmetology and others.
A similar programme had also started in the Hohoe Municipality.
Speaking at the opening ceremony to mark the beginning of the STEP Programme at Sogakope, the district capital, the Volta Regional Director of the NYA, Mr Yao Semorde, explained that the Authority had observed with regret that skill training and self-employment among the youth had dwindled over the years.
The pilot project would, therefore, whip up the interest of the youth to develop their skills and become self-employed.
According to Mr Semorde, the lack of interest in skills training among the youth was a major development challenge confronting the country, hence his outfit’s decision to implement the skills training pilot project, which he explained would be implemented as a national programme when proved to be successful.
Mr Semorde said not every youth would get the opportunity of pursuing education to the higher level to enable them to be employed in the formal sector of the economy.
To him, therefore, it was important to develop such a programme like STEP to bridge the unemployment gap in society.
The Volta Regional Director of NYA explained that government had paid GHC1,200 for each of the trainees and to those training them, as well as providing training equipment to the beneficiary trainees.
He asked the beneficiaries of the programme to take the training programme more seriously and also take good care of the training equipment.
He warned that anyone caught selling the training equipment would be dealt with according to the laws of the land.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for South Tongu, Mr Kobla Mensah Woyome commended government for the introduction of the programme, which according to him, would help in reducing the high unemployment among the youth in the District.
He suggested to the sponsors to periodically organise the programme for the youth when the pilot project proves very successful.
Mr Woyome appealed to the youth in the South Tongu District to take advantage of available opportunities to help them develop themselves and to prepare adequately to face the future with confidence.
In a speech read for the South Tongu District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Seth Agbi, he noted that government programmes and policies geared towards youth employment are carefully designed and advice the youth to embrace them.
The DCE assured that the Assembly was committed to supporting the programme and would do everything possible to ensure that it succeeds.
