The Okere District Assembly has enrolled 281 young people in various trade aprentceship programmes under the Okere District Empowerment Fund (OkDEF) to create job opportunities for the youth.
The OkDEF is an initiative of the Assembly and the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, to build capacities of the youth in some forms of skills to reduce the mass unemployment among the youth.
The OkDEF is funding the cost of apprenticeship, professional NVTI examination and tool kits for the training at the cost of Gh1,000 for each of the beneficiaries while over 120 master craftsmen of various trades have been engaged to train these apprentices.
At a ceremony to formally unveil the beneficiaries, Mr Daniel Kenneth, Okere District Chief Executive indicated that a needs assessment conducted showed that over 800 youth in Okere had no employable skills or any skill to guarantee them livelihoods.
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That, he said informed the setting up of the OkDEF to pay special attention to the training of the youth in various grades of their choices to set up their own businesses to improve the local economy.
The initiative is line with the government’s agenda of ensuring that the youth were empowered to create their own small businesses and jobs for sustainable livelihoods to reduce the high rate of unemployment.
According to the DCE, as part of an holistic aproach to the youth employment agenda, the fund would provide start-up kits to set up businesses for the beneficiaries after a successful training and urged them to stay focus.
He appealed to parents and guardians of the beneficiaries to support the noble cause by playing their roles efficiently adding that “every cost of the training has been provided what is left is your side of taking care of their needs such as feeding to complement the efforts”.
SOURCE: newsghana.com.gh
