Stakeholders urged to show more concern for youth training – Sulley

Funsi(UWR), June 12, GNA – Mr Albert Bawa Sulley, Vice President of Sissala Union has called on stakeholders to stop providing credit facilities and other pro-poor interventions to rural people and be more concerned to provision of employable skills to the youth through vocational training.

He said although provision of employable skills was not a panacea to their problems and challenges; it was the key to the success of their endeavours in life.

Mr Sulley made the call at a meeting of members of South Sissala Union at Funsi in Wa East District on Thursday.

It was to afford members an opportunity to come out with a development plan for investors to help develop the area.

Mr Sulley said social vices among the youth was due to lackadaisical attitude of government and civil society organisations to provide the requisite skill training to meet the rights, needs and aspirations of the youth.

He noted that the over concentration of development of urban centres to the neglect of rural communities, absence of national youth policy and the need for expansion of technical and vocational training in the educational sector had contributed immensely to the migration of the youth to the cities for non-existing white collar jobs.

Mr Sulley said meaningful impact of credit facilities to the rural poor could reduce the crime wave and other social vices in the society.

“What do you expect from the youth in Wa East District that has poor road network, no communication network, no electricity, no senior high school, no banking facility and no potable water in its capital, Funsi,” he asked.

“Migration would be their lot and nobody can blame them because government and civil society organisations had failed them and the price is what we are paying for in the urban centres,” Mr Sulley added.

Mr Sulley called for a paradigm shift in the way and manner government and civil society organisations had been doing things to a more positive approach to securing the youth from indulging in social vices such as cyber fraud.

He called for the establishment of a university to cater for technical and vocational students to encourage more youth to take interest in that sector of education.

Mr Sulley suggested that other youths without formal education should be given practical technical and vocational training in the communities to provide them with employable skills to live decent lives.

He pointed out that the withdrawal of subsidies on agriculture inputs, equipment and machinery as well as the reduction of agricultural extension officers to provide modern farming techniques to farmers to enhance food production would affect agricultural productivity in the country.

Mr Sulley therefore, urged government to restore subsidies on agriculture to enable farmers produce more food for domestic consumption and export.

He called on the youth to play a watchdog role on politicians, especially district chief executives and other public officials as well as contractors operating in their communities to ensure judicious use of public funds.

GNA