Training The Youth For The Future

Youth development and empowerment for national progress is a major challenge confronting many developing nations the world over. Many African nations, unlike Europe and other advanced countries have a very high youth population ratio relative to the aged. Youthful energies are very essential for national development if well harnessed and deployed. They can conversely turn an albatross on the neck of any society that ignores the training and development needs of the youth. Unskilled and unharnessed youthful labour can be exploited and deployed for the wrong reasons.

The training and the development of the youth as an essential resource for national development takes various forms since their interests and talents differ from one individual to the other. Truth be told, policies towards the youth in this country over the last decades have been very ad hoc and to some extent, experimental. Human lives and their future cannot undergo experiments for such a long time and expect to achieve sustainable productive outcomes.

Since the late 1980s when the system of education went through a certain drastic reform, with the view to reduce the length of time spent along the educational journey, there was a deafening silence in opposition to the idea, but Ghanaians 'walked from where to oppose' to embrace the change. We were made to believe that the then Junior Secondary School (JSS) was going to combine both grammar, vocational and technical training for the youth.

Politicians made it look as if it was the best that was going to help our children in their adulthood. The state newspapers and electronic media at the time trumpeted the idea and no day passed without one story about the construction of a workshop or the other to satisfy the vocational and technical component of the new education system at the basic level.

In less than no time, the technical and vocational part of the reform receded leaving the grammar section to prevail. I do not know how many Technical Schools operating during my school days still function as such. Some thirty years down the line, children of the time when the policy was implemented have become adults of today, with most of them not properly trained, if they had any training at all.

The basic education system as it operates today throws away thousands of young teenagers onto the streets not knowing which way next. Yet we make them believe that they have had some education. Thankfully the Government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is bent on ensuring that many graduates from the JHS get the opportunity to progress academically from there. There will still remain a huge proportion of the young people who will not progress to the formal grammar and technical educational ladder. The opportunity for them to have vocational and technical education is still limited and even where those public institutions function, the equipment to make learning and teaching worthwhile do not exist. So many of those who want to have some artisanal or technical skills get them through the informal sector.

This country is blessed with very skillful artisans who graduated from the road side apprenticeship as mechanics, welders, sprayers, upholsters, electricians, etc. These are the people who check and maintain about 90 percent of vehicles plying our roads on a daily basis. We have the old aged Suame magazine in Kumasi, a renowned first class artisanal hub in West Africa. We have Kokompe in the Twin City of my beloved Sekondi-Takoradi, a host of them in Accra, Odawna, Darkuman and other such places.

These are predominantly the artisanal training grounds for our teeming youth who are either drop outs from the grammar system of education, could not progress on account of poverty, or did not have the opportunity for formal education in the first instance. Sadly, these huge number of young people whose training in whatever form contributes significantly to our development and growth are relegated to the background in the scheme of things.

What kind of investments has the state put into the physical development of those informal training grounds for the benefit of the youth over the years? Even though they still remain the training grounds for the youth and service and maintenance centres for majority of us on wheels, the environment where these major activities take place on a daily basis is very sordid to the sight and the service delivery of the artisans. The muddy or dusty nature of the environment is not attractive to young people who otherwise would love to have artisanal skills so they can be productive to themselves and the nation.

We are in the rainy season now, let anyone visit any of the 'garages' or the Suame magazines and the Kokompes in this country and see what the environments look like. The apprentices have to lie in muddy grounds to work on vehicles. They look so dirty and oily all over their bodies as they learn their trade. They have no flowing taps to even wash and clean their bodies after the day's work. Commuters on trotros do not even want to share seats with them in the vehicles they maintain to be on the road.

When the weather is dry, the converse with the same outcomes confront them, dusty and filthy environment. Such environments do not attract the young ones to want to learn a trade not because they don't like the occupation, but the training period is sometimes very demeaning and humanly degrading.

How much will it cost the nation to invest in these areas to provide reasonably modern structures and facilities for the private sector operators to help in the training of the youth at virtually no cost to the state? The Kokompe in Takoradi should be planned and developed in such a manner that Toyota mechanics could be grouped under areas designated to Toyota vehicles and under sheds with lockers and wash rooms for the use of the Masters and the apprentices.

A person drives a Nissan to Kokompe and he knows where Nissan mechanics are situated, all various vehicle-makes should be grouped to make identification easier. Welders, sprayers, auto electricians and all allied artisans should be grouped under modern sheds with paved roads and floors to make their work more dignifying. In this case, it will be more attractive for the youth to offer themselves as apprentices in various fields.

An interaction with many “Master' artisans indicate that they don't have apprentices to work with, yet there are millions of unskilled youth roaming about the streets looking for none existing job opportunities. The state is interested in pumping monies into grammar education whose graduates expect jobs from the Government than training artisans; majority of whom will not look up to the government for jobs after their training.

It has become very fashionable for estate developers to use tiles in their buildings these days. Where are the 'tilers'? Togolese. Plumbers are needed almost on a daily basis, but who is training them? The state once upon a time was training 'Youth in mining 'to be able to exploit the mineral resources of this country. What kind of training did we give them? Are we surprised that destructive mining has become the order of the day?

We have spent monies in training the Youth in bicycle riding as if riding bicycles on its own creates jobs and empowers the rider economically. This nation, just as many other developing nations, is at the crossroads because of the teeming youth unemployment confronting us. The truth is that many of the unemployed youth are simply unemployable in many areas of the economy. The age of technology has also reduced the chances of raw labour as a major factor of production.

It is time to take the bull by the horn and tackle the unskilled labour force issue to enable them spaces in the labour market either through self -employment or being engaged in the formal sector of the economy once they have acquired employable skills.

At least, each regional capital must have such upgraded artisanal workshop for a start. Let's LAUNCH OPERATION TRAIN THE YOUTH to solve the unemployment problem. Hmmm, three tots in this rainy season!

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