NYEP Has 10 Target Employment Areas

Ten employment areas have been targeted under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), a special national exercise initiated on a Presidential directive, which takes off in August this year.

Dr Charles Brempong-Yeboah, Deputy Minister for Manpower, Youth and Employment who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, stated that the purpose of the programme was to explore, recommend and provide additional employment opportunities for the youth to facilitate their empowerment economically.

The Deputy Minister throwing light on the Implementation Guidelines of the NYEP also known as the Ghana Youth Job Corps Programme said the areas included Youth in Agri-Business, Youth in Trades and Vocations, Youth in ICT and Community Protection.

The rest are Waste and Sanitation Management; Community Education Teaching Assistants; Auxiliary Health Care Workers Assistants; Paid Internships and Industrial Attachments; Vacation Jobs and Volunteer Services.

Touching on the objectives of the areas, the Deputy Minister said the main objective of the Youth in Agri-Business was to provide employment for the youth in agricultural related activities and ventures and encourage them to take up agriculture as an occupation.

He said that agricultural activities would be selected based on the relative natural comparative advantages of each district, adding that, employment task force in the Districts were to decide what area had the potential to provide sustainable employment to many of the youth in the locality.

Dr Brempong-Yeboah said the primary objective of the Youth Trades and Vocations was to economically empower the youth who engage in non-agriculture ventures through self-employment by ensuring that they were well-organised and sufficiently supported both financially and through the provision of other resources to enable them to undertake their activities in a sustainable manner.

The Youth in ICT, he said, was aimed at providing employment to the youth by developing and sustaining a pool of knowledgeable ICT workforce in critical skill areas and professions that would contribute to the process of developing Ghana's economy.

The Deputy Minister said the Community Protection System was to enhance safety and security, as well as to strengthen law and order. He explained that the Community Protection Units would comprise young men and women who would be engaged to support the law enforcement agencies in maintaining law and order and keeping the peace.