By Albert Futukpor
Tamale, Aug. 12, GNA – About 80 students at the Northern School of Business (NOBISCO) have been sensitised on the need to venture into green skills to ensure sustainable jobs in future.
The event, held at NOBISCO in Tamale in the Northern Region, was undertaken by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) under its Prevention of Violent Extremism through Social Accountability (POVESTA) project, to commemorate this year’s International Youth Day (IYD).
The IYD is marked on August 12, every year, to draw worldwide focus on various issues surrounding the youth, and the theme for this year’s IYD is: “Green Skills for Youth towards a Sustainable World.”
Mrs Lilly Oseyda Jay, the Project Manager, Education to Employment, CRS, who made a presentation on green skills and how young people could reduce, reuse and recycle waste and its related materials, said green skills would soon be crucial for the world of work.
She said “In some few years to come; by 2030, there will be several jobs that young people will need skills to be able to fit into. But sadly, more than three to seven per cent of the youth force, who will by 2030 be under the age of 30, will not have those skills to fit into the 8.4 million jobs that will be available.”
She said, “What we intend to do at CRS, is to let the young people understand the need for venturing into these green skills; agriculture, more sustainable green economy like getting into the water and sanitation aspect, agroforestry, artificial intelligence, the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) sector.”
She emphasised that as the years went by, the ordinary jobs were gradually phasing out, and people were now getting robots to be receptionists and do things for them.
“How do we prepare young people to be able to even be data analysts? So, there is a vast opportunity out there for these young people but what matters is that the jobs they are doing will help sustain the current economic situation that we have globally,” she said.
Mrs Jay said the opportunities in the green space were enormous, advising them to venture into skills that would give them jobs as a result of their green skills.
Hence, she discouraged the youth from focusing only on the traditional jobs and encouraged them to be bold to acquire more practical skills on issues relating to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
“Even within the agricultural field, there are a lot of things that you can be, you can be a scientist, engineer, you can do so many things, even waste recycling, which is something that is prestigious as well,” she said.
The event also featured a general discussion and an open forum about young people and the role they could play in peacebuilding towards the 2024 general election in the country.
Ruhia Abubakar, the Project Assistant at CRS, who led the session, advised the students to tolerate one another, and be mediators by generating ideas for societal change.
Some of the students shared their experiences and observations about electoral violence and how some of the perpetrators of such acts were handled by the law enforcement agencies.
They also lauded the presentation on green skills and the need for them to even volunteer at some relevant organisations to acquire such practical skills to enhance their chances of getting jobs or creating their own jobs.
GNA