Employment Ministry To Revamp Dormant Departments

Ho, Sept. 9, GNA - A number of agencies under the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment (MMDE) are to be revamped as part of efforts to increase the Ministry's capacity to tackle poverty reduction, Mr Yaw Barimah, Sector Minister said on Monday.

The agencies include the Labour Department, the Department of Social Welfare and the Department of Factories Inspectorate. Mr Barimah who was opening a five-day workshop at Ho on "Decent work and Poverty Reduction in Ghana - Strengthening the MMDE's Capacity to Contribute to Ghana's Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS)" said it is important that people are equipped with relevant skills to put them in sustainable employment.

The Minister noted that the MMDE's role is crucial, saying that the obvious inadequacies of work capacity that inhibit the Ministry and its departments to function effectively must be removed.

Mr Barimah announced that the Ministry would also conduct a survey to determine the country's manpower needs, with the data gathered forming an input into a national manpower policy.

He said a joint summit of stakeholders would be held next year to deliberate on strategies for job and wealth creation in the light of the President's Special Initiatives.

The 35 participants attending the workshop were drawn from departments, agencies under the MMDE, District Assemblies, Association of Small-Scale Industries, Association of the Disabled and GRATIS. Mr Barimah blamed unemployment and under employment partly on the educational system which produces unskilled persons that find their way into the informal sector.

He said the President's Special Initiatives would help address the issue, adding that over 500 youths had been trained under the Skills Training and Placement Programme (STEP) initiated by his Ministry, based on the 2001 registration of the unemployed.

Mr Barimah said those trained were currently being linked to Micro-Financial Institutions for support to enable them establish their own businesses.

Mr. Peter Poschen, Senior Specialist of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), based in Geneva said the objective of the workshop was to equip staff of the MMDE with relevant skills to provide inputs into the national PRS programme, provide participants with skills in proposal writing, vocational, entrepreneurial development and integrating the excluded into mainstream work environment for national development.