Avoidable Barriers To The Youth Employment Agency Recruitment Process

Swift steps taken by the newly established National Youth Employment Agency in rolling out various employment modules for the youth of Ghana is indeed, a very commendable move of the Agency, in view of the high level of unemployment among the youth of Ghana.

Information on the grounds however, indicates that the decision by the Agency to restrict application for recruitment into the modules to online application has made it impossible for young people who do not have access to the internet to have equal access to the opportunity.

What this also means is that young people in rural communities which do have access to electricity and Information Technology facilities have been automatically denied of the opportunity,although they constitute the bulk of youth who suffer unemployment and poverty in the country.

It is true that some of the modules such as the Youth in Fire Service module has made it clear that YEA District would also serve as online registration centres for young people who do not have access to internet facilities but the reality is that most MMDAs are still without YEA offices.

The FYPD agrees,to the idea that the youth and indeed the entire nation should work harder toward achieving the required level of Information Technology literacy in order to keep abreast with global trends, and also remain competitive in world economic matters, but given the slow rate of the development of IT infrastructure in the country,it is only fair that the transition of official transactions from paper forms to online processes,should also be a gradual process.

The position in the above is even more justified when the extremely slow pace of acquisition of IT education,especially among rural youth is taken into consideration.

The Foundation therefore wish to appeal to the YEA to provide alternative means of accessing its programmes in order to protect the interest of young people who do not have access to IT facilities and also those who do not have basic training in IT or both.

We wish to recommend that in the interim,offices of the National Youth Authority and should also be added to the centres for accessing online programmes of the Agency.

Joseph Tetteh
(Executive Director,FYPD)
+233(0)244571090
e-mail:[email protected]