By Muniratu Akweley Issah
Accra, Jan. 20, GNA – Mr Seth Twum Akwaboa, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Association of Ghana Industries ( AGI), has encouraged the youth to embrace apprenticeship and networking to become effective entrepreneurs.
Mr Akwaboah said apprenticeship training was necessary in preparing young entrepreneurs for their future careers.
Mr Akwaboah was speaking at a panel discussion during a youth forum at the 2023 Annual New Year’s School and Conference organised by the School of Continuing and Distance Learning at the University of Ghana.
He said the youth were the future leaders and admonished them to develop the right skills and prepare themselves to take advantage of opportunities within Ghana and beyond.
” In doing so, you must learn on the job, and that is the spirit of apprenticeship. If you look at our informal sector, a lot of the skills are picked up through apprenticeship, so it’s not enough to be attached to an institution for internship and mentorship, though they are all very important, but having the apprenticeship spirit means you will spoil your hands, you actually have to go to the ground, work with people, and learn from them.
” A lot of the learning comes from our small enterprises as well, so don’t only aim at working in big companies before you think you can develop your skills to become an entrepreneur.
“You go to the roadside, learn from somebody there, you can pick up the skills and implement them, develop yourself, and take over from the older generation,” he added.
He advocated the need to formalise and polish apprenticeship to make it more attractive for the youth to be interested and be able to learn appropriate skills.
Mr Akwaboah said youth entrepreneurship had become very important and that he believed there were a lot of opportunities available to them to learn new skills and find innovative ways of doing things with the right mindset.
Mr Steven Odarteyefio, Agric Investment Lead, Youstart programme, at the Ministry of Finance, said the Ministry was looking at training and supporting over 50,000 youth to be equipped with technical expertise to start a business with all the resources needed.
Mr Odarteyefio said the programme was looking at investing between GHc 50, 000 to GHc 100,000 in youth development.
He, therefore, encouraged the youth to take advantage of the Youstart programme as well as opportunities under the African Continental Free Trade Area ( AfCFTA).
“We have too many people doing so many things at the same time. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to identify one particular problem to be focused on, and when successful, you use the experience to explore other businesses,” he said.
The youth forum, which was part of the new year school and conference, brought together students from senior high schools, youth groups, and universities to learn and share ideas, as well as explore various opportunities available to them.
GNA