By Alex Baah Boadi, GNA
Sefwi-Akoti (WN/R), Dec. 17, GNA – The Asante Gold Corporation, and MAXMASS Limited have held a graduation ceremony to outdoor seventeen local youth trained in various mining operations.
The youth, selected from the company’s catchment communities, had extensive training in excavator and bulldozer driving, mechanic, welding, and other trainings for the job market.
At the ceremony, Mr Oppong Kyekyeku, the Environment and Community Relations Manager, Asante Gold, said the training formed part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility of empowering the teeming youth in the area to excel in various fields.
He lauded MAXMASS for the initiative and hoped that they continued to train more youth in the area to help reduce unemployment in the area.
Mr Kyekyeku urged the youth to shift focus to hands-on skills, saying such skills had high demand on the job market.
Mr Godwill Ngissah, the Project Manager, MAXMASS Limited, emphasised their commitment towards supporting the youth in the area especially on sustainable jobs.
“I can confirm that these young guys are fully fledged operators and engineers ready for the job market not as non-skilled labour but rather skilled labour,” he said.
He urged the youth within mining areas to always take up apprenticeship programmes, saying, that was the only way they could be employed by these mining firms.
Nana Kwasi Nwunu II, the Chief of Akaaso, and Chairman for Community Consultative Committee (CCC), said Asante Gold had shown that social responsibility must go beyond words, and had demonstrated through deliberate actions to build people and strengthen communities.
He commended the two organisations for creating an operating environment that encouraged contractors to align with community development priorities.
“This is the kind of collaboration that strengthens trust, deepens relationships and sustains the social license to operate,” he added.
The traditional leader also urged the trainees to be of good behaviour to create more opportunities for others.
Nana Nwunu also asked other contractors and partners of the mine, to emulate the shining examples of MAXMASS because “when communities see tangible benefits through skills development, understanding and cooperation naturally follows.”
Some of the trainees and family members who attended the graduation ceremony in an interview with the Ghana News Agency lauded the initiative and said it would empower them to help improve upon the local economy.
GNA
Edited by Justina Paaga/ Christabel Addo