German Cooperation’s Invest for Jobs commence training workshop for SMEs in wood processing

The German Cooperation’s invest for Jobs on Monday, October 11, 2021, launched a two-week training workshop for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in wood processing and furniture manufacturing.

In all, 20 wood processing companies are participating in the Ghana-Germany SME training and exchange Programme under the Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation.

The Programme marks the second round of the SME training and exchange Programme being championed by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The SME Training and Exchange programme is being implemented and managed by COGNOS International and supported by ‘Invest for Jobs.’

The Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, among others.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the launch of the second round of the training today, Timo Tekhaus who is the Head of Operations at Cognos International stressed that the overall goal of the project is to create jobs in Ghana with the SMEs.

Timo Tekhaus

He said while it is not ideal for the Ghanaian SMEs to learn everything from their German counterparts at the end of the training, his outfit is expecting that participants will pick enough before the programme ends.

“I know it’s not everything they can take and implement one to one. That won’t work because Germany is different and Ghana is different. But what they can take they must learn from them and it will help the business economy of Ghana to help the development of the country,” Timo Tekhaus added.

On his part, Team Leader of Invest for Jobs at GIZ, John C. Duti emphasised that the training will go a long way to help the participating SMEs to not only expand locally but have international reach in the end.

“Our expectation or expectation is that these companies after our engagement will expand and employ additional hands. This initiative will help the selected companies to identify their peers in Germany and after this training, they will go on a business trip to engage with their German counterparts.

“So we hope that they will be able to establish growth linkages and when they are back in Ghana they will be able to produce to meet the demands of the international market,” Mr. John Duti noted.

John Duti

One of the participants, Emmanuel Tetteh Ashitey who works with Makers Consult with an opportunity to speak expressed his delight to be part of the training programme.

He said his firm has always been challenged on training and finance to grow but now believes things will change.

Mr. Ashitey noted that through the programme, he is hoping to secure the needed push to grow his business by embracing the many opportunities that will come his way.

The official launch of this second round marks the beginning of a two-week kick-off workshop for the 20 SMEs operating in the field of wood-processing, furniture production, and furniture accessories companies.

Following this, a two-week management training will take place in Germany, where Business-to-Business (B2B) meetings will be held with German companies to learn at first-hand, experiences on production, quality management, and supply chain management from German companies.

Finally, the programme will close with peer and expert coaching in Ghana.

A first round of 20 SMEs from the agri-processing, cosmetics, and shea nut processing sector already participated in the programme in April 2021.

The Invest for Jobs which started in 2019 is aiming to create 10,000 decent jobs in Ghana by 2025.