Accra, Nov 7, GNA – Mr Kwaku Yeboah, Component Manager, Ghanaian-European Centre (GEC), says the Ghana Career and Migration Fair 2023 will complement employment-related policies by the government to provide sustainable jobs and skills development for young people.
He said the Fair would look at capacity building for individuals, workers and particularly the youth, who were intending to take advantage of further educational prospects across the country, including regional opportunities which the AfCFTA programme presented.
Mr Yeboah was speaking during the launch of the Ghana Career and Migration Fair 2023 in Accra.
The event sought to bring together Ghanaian, German, and European stakeholders to explore opportunities for improving youth employment through technical and vocational skills training.
It aimed at sensitising stakeholders in the labour market within the skilled labour migration sector on employment opportunities, including skilled employment, education, technical and vocational training opportunities within the West African sub-region and the European Union (EU) job market.
The sixth annual Career Fair organised by the Ghanaian-European Centre for Jobs, Migration and Development in partnership with the EU and the Employment Ministry is scheduled for November 29, 2023, in Accra.
The activities of the Centre are implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and co-funded by the European Union.
Mr Yeboah said over the years, the Centre had provided mental health services, employment-related services, including entrepreneurial services, which had culminated in over 70,000 people.
“We have been doing the job Fair since 2018, not only in Accra, and over the years, the intent and purpose has been changing so, during the COVID, we had to go virtual,” he added.
Agya Yaw Nsiah, Director for Research and Planning, Youth Employment Agency (YEA), said Ghana had to create over a million jobs in the next four years to be able to absorb the youth unemployment numbers in the country.
He said it was a shared responsibility for all relevant agencies and stakeholders to come together to work closely and impactfully, to be able to create jobs for the youth.
“And I think that is why this Fair is very important, for the past three years, the Ghanaian-European Centre has been working closely with the Employment Ministry, Labour Department and the Agency to organise this programme,” he added.
Agya Nsiah said the intention was to engage more young people to commence conversations about how to explore issues around labour migration and place particular emphasis on TVET.
He said the YEA had been exploring to have a work-abroad scheme, stating that they were looking at the Ghanaian-European Centre and Employment Ministry to get it working.
“For us, we think that there is a very good argument for us to explore it, as we indicated earlier that the economy has been growing but not at a rate to provide more jobs for young people and we believe that we have the best human capital and talent in this country,” he added.
Mrs Gloria Noi, Director, Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, said skilled labour mobility, employment and Technical and Vocational Educ
She assured stakeholders of the Ministry’s support towards the yearly intervention executed between the Employment Ministry, Labour Department, YEA and GIZ to promote employment and labour migration management.
GNA