A day's multi-stakeholder engagement to discuss potentials, challenges and the need to develop support schemes for Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to enhance youth employment and social cohesion has been held in Tamale. It was organised by the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), an NGO, in collaboration with Acting For Life (AFL) under the PARCS project, which seeks to strengthen social cohesion in strategic cross - border areas, with funding support from the French Development Agency and France Air. It brought together TVET Committee members among other key stakeholders from the Northern, Upper East, and North East Regions to help enforce multi-stakeholder governance of the socio-economic development of cross-border territories. Alhaji Osman Abdel-Rahman, Executive Director of GCDA, speaking during the event, said the TVET Committees engagement was to create an opportunity to present the PARCS project particularly in terms of integration paths to success and to develop synergies amongst existing actors and programmes, including funding opportunities for young people, job offers, and information on professional trainings. He emphasised that the TVET component of the project being implemented by GCDA and partners was a three-year programme geared towards training and placement of 240 young people to acquire skills in agriculture and construction to maximise employment opportunities. He indicated, 'Our focus is to evaluate what each stakeholder was doing in their jurisdictions in respect to TVET and how we could collectively contribute to address the prevalence of youth unemployment.' Madam Lea Pottier, TVET Programme Manager, Acting For Life, said it was currently being implemented in Bukina-Faso, Mali, Benin, Togo and Ghana with a total of 5,600 beneficiaries in its ongoing four projects. She said the project was targeting young people, especially those, who dropped out of school amongst other vulnerable people to equip them with skills in renewable energies and natural resources, agriculture and construction. She said the project had so far strengthened technical and vocational platforms and acquired raw materials for beneficiary countries to facilitate quality training. Mr Latif Abdul-Aziz, Deputy Northern Regional Director of TVET Services, reiterated the need for various stakeholders to appreciate the role of TVET in national development. He said the erroneous perception that TVET was meant for people, who were unintelligent, was discouraging young people and added that it was time to reverse the narrative. He appealed to private industries to prioritise collaborating with government and TVET institutions in the training of learners to enhance their skills and competence. Participants expressed need to expand the scope of recruitment to cover many more young people, employment opportunities, instituting a business hub where beneficiaries, after the training, could have the space to ply their trade as well as the need to provide measures to sustain the project. Ubore Kwawai Simon, Divisional Chief of Lakpale Traditional Area in the Tatale-Sanguli District urged traditional authorities to provide land for young people to execute skills acquired in the training.
Source: Ghana News Agency