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Employment Minister Ignatius Barfour Awuah says the government is redoubling its efforts to ensure the provision of employment opportunities for students who will graduate annually from second cycle institutions.
Following the success of the government’s free upper secondary school (SHS) program, approximately 1.2 million students are expected to graduate from SHS.
According to him, the success of the government’s free SHS program and the high TVET enrollment rate expected following the government’s decision to make them free will greatly contribute to a large supply of skilled labor in the country, which can create challenges. labor.
Therefore, it is prudent for the government to begin planning employment opportunities for the large number of students who will graduate as a means of addressing the growing unemployment problems in the country.
He said: “The unemployment problem is expected to grow in the short to medium term due to the success of the government’s free SHS program and planned TVET for higher technical colleges.
“More than 1.2 million young people will graduate annually from second cycle institutions to enroll in tertiary education or training or directly enter the labor markets.
“This is an increase from the 800,000 students enrolled in high schools in 2016. Therefore, efforts must be duplicated to ensure that there are employment opportunities for the products of our education and training institutions,” he said.
The Minister of Employment made this known when delivering the keynote address at the launch of a World Bank report on youth unemployment in Ghana.
He mentioned that despite the imminent rise in unemployment in the country, the government has started promoting agribusiness and entrepreneurship among young people as viable employment opportunities.
“To this end, the government is promoting agribusiness and entrepreneurship to make them attractive to young people. The cassava business project, the national entrepreneurship plan and the presidential launch are key examples of some of the interventions the government is using to provide employment for youth.
“These efforts are in addition to traditional job opportunities in the formal sectors of the economy,” he said.
The minister further added that the government seeks to maintain and attract strong collaborations with local and international partners to ensure that more jobs are created to employ young people, as the government will not be able to employ the large population alone.
He also mentioned that the government will also do more to create a business-friendly atmosphere in order to improve employment rates.
