New Abirem (E/R), March 18, GNA – The Newmont Akyem Development Foundation has provided start-up kits to 75 apprentices at New Abirem in the Eastern Region to enable them to practice their trade and employ others.
The items, worth 65,000 Ghana cedis, included sewing machines and accessories, dummies, towels, hammers, chopping boards, measuring scales, rolling pins, and baking tins.
This is part of efforts by the Foundation, under its ASSIST Programme, to create employment for the youth within its catchment communities.
As a result, the youth have received training in auto electrical, tailoring, hairdressing, fabrication, masonry, carpentry, and plumbing.
As they learned their various trades, the apprentices also received a monthly allowance of 150 Ghana for three years.
Mr Paul Apenu, the Executive Secretary of NAKDeF, at a ceremony to present the items to the beneficiaries, said the Foundation allocated 74,800 Ghana cedis to the master craftsmen through the ASSIST Programme to enable them to give of their best in training the apprentices.
He stated that since its inception in 2017, the programme had trained more than a thousand youth in various trades to help reduce unemployment in their catchment areas.
Aside from apprenticeship training, Mr Apenu said many beneficiaries were sent to Asankare in the Ashanti Region to be trained to meet Newmont’s standards, and that some had put what they were taught into practice, creating employment for themselves and others.
Mr Apenu said the programme was made possible through the assistance of the Sustainable Development Committee, a group formed to plan the Foundation’s operations and development, to ensure that communities benefited from the activities of Newmont’s Akyem Mines.
He advised the apprentices to take their trades seriously and live up to expectation as the Foundation would be monitoring them periodically.
GNA