‘Lack of start-up capital militating against youth employment’

The Director of Integrated Community Centre for Employable Skills (ICCES), Mr Godwin Kudese,said lack of start-up capital for ICCES graduates was one of the major challenges militating against the successful implementation of the programme.

The ICCES is an agency under the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations aimed at creating opportunities for school drop-outs, semi-literate and less privileged youth to be self-sustainable.

Mr Kudese said insufficient logistics for effective monitoring and evaluation as well as lack of refresher courses for instructors and managers of the centres to upgrade their skills in the face of advancement in technology globally was affecting such a laudable policy.

Mr Kudese expressed these concerns at the closing of a four-day capacity-building workshop for managers of ICCES from the Central and Western regions at Shama in the Western Region.

The event, organised by The Turing Trust,a non-governmental organisation interested in youth education, afforded the participants the opportunity to learn management functions and financial reporting, as well as proper electronic waste disposal and maintenance of computers and their accessories to ensure a longer life span.

Mr Kudese said currently there were 61 ICCES across the country with over 2000 trainees undergoing various apprenticeships in technical and vocational skills.

He said the primary aim of the ICCES was to provide employable skills to the rural folks to curb the increasing rural-urban drift and its attendant social vices.

Some technical and vocational training being offered at the centres include auto mechanic, electrical and body works, electronics, catering, cosmetics, dressmaking, draftsmanship and landscaping, ICT, and hairdressing, among others.

The Country Director of The Turing Trust, Mr Edmund Pinto, said the NGO aimed at supporting ICCES and other needy schools across the country with computers and accessories for administrative purposes to ensure efficiency in their operations and expose trainees to the world of ICT.

So far, he said, it had supplied computers and accessories to some ICCES in Volta, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Central, Greater Accra, Eastern and Western regions worth GH¢ 26,000.00 and also shortlisted 30 trainees for scholarships amounting to GH¢ 6,000.00 this year.

He said the current era of globalization and ICT revolution required concerted efforts by the Government and other stakeholders to support the youth with the requisite employable skills to make them self-sustainable and curb the surging rural-urban drift.

The NGO, he said, relied on philanthropists, volunteers and well-wishers for support towards its activities and that it had put up a computer laboratory for ICCES at Afoako in Amansie Central of the Ashanti Region, to promote ICT education.