The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) has signed an agreement with INZAG Germany, a construction firm, to employ 700 young Ghanaian artisans.
Masons, plumbers, carpenters, tilers, plaster of Paris designers, fabricators, and steel benders will be among the artisans.
The firm will employ them to build and renovate the Ashaiman-Akosombo dual carriageway.
The agreement was part of the YEA’s vision of employing at least 25,000 young people by the end of this year.
Vision
The two-year partnership, according to YEA’s Chief Executive Officer, Kofi Baah Agyepong, is part of the agency’s goal to create a solid database of young men and women with pertaining artisanal skills for the job market.
“We will train and upscale their skills. By this, the artisans are not only going to earn a living for themselves through this employment but will proudly contribute their expertise to the construction of a major state asset,” he said.
Mr Agyepong attributed the unemployment situation in the country partly to the lack of requisite skills and said the agreement would, therefore, lead to the upgrading of the skills of the trainees.
He further said that the agreement was carefully put together with the welfare and safety of the beneficiaries at heart.
Mr Agyepong said under the agreement, beneficiaries would have their income tax, social security contributions and all other statutory payments made on their behalf by the company.
He said already, 2,000 youth under a prison warden assistants scheme had commenced training and would be passing out soon, while 15,000 community police assistants had also started training in batches of 5,000 at the various police training depots in the country.
According to him, all the trainees might eventually be engaged by their respective agencies in future.
Additionally, a total of 1,000 youth secured some form of employment during the various job fairs organised across the country, he added.
Commendation
The Country Manager of INZAG Germany, Fernando Mariano, commended YEA for the collaboration.
“We look forward to seeing the partnership blossom to its fullest. This is a great opportunity for the youth in Ghana and we do not take it for granted. We are happy to work with YEA,” he said.
Also present at the event were the Contract Manager and Project directors of the company, Alvaro Veiga de Oliveira and Jose Teles.
