More Ghanaian youth to gain employment through YESDEC

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE


The Youth Enterprises and Skills Development Centre (YESDEC), is set to facilitate the creation of more small-scale businesses and employment avenues for youth in the Volta Region of Ghana, with the introduction of its employment programme this month.
YESDEC is a private sector initiative, which aims at partnering with the public sector to provide a solution to the unemployment situation in Ghana.
The programme is in collaboration with the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) and has the principal aim of helping the youth between the ages of 18 to 45 who have acquired skills but lack equipment to set up and successfully manage their own businesses.
In an interview with the National Coordinator of the programme, Miss Mavis Yamoah, she disclosed that the Centre will register and train beneficiaries in various trade modules such as Beauty Care, Sewing, Soap Making, Grasscutter Rearing, Farming and Fish Farming, Snail Rearing, Computer Repairs, Fish Processing, Food and Catering, Welding, Batik, Tie and Dye, Barbering, Mobile Phone Repairs, Computer Repairs, Construction and Block Making.
“It is the mandate of YESDEC to train and set up One Thousand (1000) beneficiaries by the end of December 2011 and so far, Four Hundred And Eighty Seven (487) beneficiaries have been trained in all the eighteen (18) districts in the Volta Region,” Miss Yamoah indicated.
The Coordinator further explained that training takes ten working days and beneficiaries are taken through hands-on practical training, detailed basic enterprise development training in areas such as book keeping, marketing skills, and customer services.
She said beneficiaries are then given setup equipment after successfully passing out from training in a selected trade.
Miss Yamoah also revealed that the programme has so far received a lot of acceptance from the people in the Volta Region.
“It is therefore the hope of YESDEC Volta region and our partners that, by the end of December 2011, our mandate to train and set up one thousand beneficiaries will be achieved. This, we believe, can be realised through partnering with the Information Service Department, the chiefs and elders and assembly persons in creating more awareness on the programme in the various towns and communities,” she added
It is the hope of YESDEC and its partners to see massive eradication of poverty in the Volta Region and thus improve the livelihood of people in the region to fulfill the mantra of the government of a better Ghana for all Ghanaians.