Govt trains 27,000 people in 46 trades

Tema, Nov. 24, GNA - The Government has released 14.5 billion cedis under the Skills Training and Employment Placement (STEP) programme to train 27,000 people in 46 trades free of charge.

In addition, it has released five billion cedis as seed capital under a micro-finance scheme to assist the trainees to establish their own small-scale enterprises, Mr Isaac Adjovu, Chief Director of the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment announced at Tema on Wednesday. He was addressing 100 graduands of the second batch of trainees in computer hard ware under the STEP programme at the Socio Economic Development Centre Limited (SEDCL) at Tema.

The Chief Director asked beneficiaries of the micro-finance scheme to use the funds judiciously for the intended purpose. He asked the youth to take advantage of new technologies in the development strategies to diversify their trades and be abreast with modern trends to be marketable.

Mr Adjovu said it was for globalisation that Information Communication Technology (ICT) had been given a new thrust in the Youth Employment and Job Creation Programme.

He said the STEP programme had not been suspended, adding: "What is being done as a matter of policy review is to place STEP under a more enhanced National Youth Employment Programme which also has skills training and placement components."

Dr K. M. Afari, Chief Executive Officer of SEDCL stressed the need for Ghana to take steps to combat computer crime that had assumed an alarming dimension to benefit from the boom in ICT. He said computer science students were qualified to take up jobs therefore; they must be employed to combat computer crime.