27,000 Unemployed Gets Jobs

Twenty-seven thousand unemployed youths who were trained and assisted with microcredits under the skills training and employment placement (STEP) programme are now self-employed.

The minister for manpower, youth and employment, Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, made this known at a one-day stakeholders' conference on the national youth policy in Accra yesterday.

The conference was to enable the stakeholders to come up with a national youth policy with realistic guidelines that would facilitate youth self development and their meaningful involvement in national development.

Mr Adda said the youth, between the ages of 15 and 35, registered as unemployed people in the country. He said the Government, through the National Youth Council (NYC) and the Integrated Community Centres for Employable Skills (ICCES), which is a community-based project, was providing employment for the youth who continued to avail themselves for the opportunity to acquire employable skills.

Mr Adda said the Government had established a ¢50 billion national youth fund which was to provide capital for skilled youth groups and individuals to set up private enterprises.

He, therefore, called on other unemployed youth on the country's streets to make good use of the opportunity to enable them to improve on their living conditions, adding, “Youth participation in the programme will help to reduce the unemployment level in the country.”

Mr Adda said the Government was also in the process of introducing a long vacation employment programme for tertiary students to help provide direct job opportunities for the youth.

He said under the programme, various economic projects would be introduced throughout the country.