General News of Monday, 1 September 2003

Source: GNA

Ministry to create climate for jobs

Amasaman (GA), Sept. 1, GNA - Mr John Benham, a Deputy Minister of Manpower Development and Employment, said the Ministry would continue to create enabling climate to generate employment for the 230,000 school leavers, who enter the labour market annually.

He said the Ministry has embarked on a programme of providing employable skills to school dropouts by designing projects and programmes to promote vocational and technical education.

These were in an address read for Mr Benham at the 10th anniversary and graduation ceremony of the students of the Tabitha Vocational Training Home Foundation at Amasaman in the Greater Accra Region. The Minister said one cardinal principle of the educational reform was to expose students to a wide variety of vocations so that those, who could not make it to the universities, could divert their intellect and energies to those areas.

Mr Samuel Nii Aryeetey Attoh, Ga District Chief Executive, said the District Assembly was exploring possibilities of using part of its District Assemblies' Common Fund as scholarship for students in vocational institutions.

He said without quality education national goals could not be achieved and appealed to parents to ensure that they paid their children's fees, fed them well and provided textbooks and other educational materials to encourage them to learn.

He asked the students to shun pre-marital and casual sex to escape from the claws of the HIV/AIDS disease.

Mrs Elizabeth Ofori, Proprietor of the Training Home Foundation, said the school was started in 1993 and had so far trained over 2,000 young men and women.

She appealed for government's assistance to expand the institute.