National Employment Policy in the offing

Accra, April 21, GNA - Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, on Friday announced that a National Employment Policy that would address unemployment issues especially among the youth would soon be launched.

Meanwhile the Government was considering the development of multi-purpose youth centres to train the youth and place them at the centre of the nation's development, he said.

Mr Adda was speaking at a forum organized by the World Bank on; "Youth and Job Creation in Ghana," said there was already in place a Youth Employment Programme, which intended to create 20,000 jobs for tertiary level graduates besides tens of thousand of other temporary jobs to be created during long vacations and through paid internships and industrial attachments.

"The need for support at the tertiary level in terms of career placement and career counselling is also a central part of the Ministry's agenda to get tertiary level students closer to the job market," he said.

He noted that the tax credit for corporate entities that would give training and jobs to the youth was another important aspect of the Government's policy designed to address youth unemployment problems. "Youth development as a concept involves their preparation for adulthood and their capability of contributing to the overall socio-economic development of the nation."

Mr Adda mentioned the implementation of the Skills Training and Employment Programme (STEP) and the National Youth Fund as initiatives pursued by the Government to deal with the unemployment problem and said a modular based national youth job corps programme targeting 170,000 jobs for the youth this year was being implemented.

Mr Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Education and Sports, who chaired the function, linked youth unemployment problems to lack of proper educational structure hence the need for educational reforms. He expressed concern about the lack of attention given to technical and vocational training and the number of secondary technical educational institutes available as compared to senior secondary schools and said more technical and vocational training were needed to reduce unemployment among the youth.

Mr Ishmael Yamson, Board Chairman of Unilever Ghana Limited, speaking on; "Business Environment, Private Sector Growth and Entrepreneurship" urged the Government to create an enabling environment for the private sector in terms of investments.

"Government has a big role to play in businesses for instance helping private companies to access loans to partner foreign investors, who come to invest in the country," he added.

He further called on the Government to make the micro level attractive to facilitate competition among businesses in Ghana and other countries, noting that companies at the enterprise level were not competitive at all. 21 April 06