Work progresses on YEA electronic job centre

Work is progressing on the establishment of an electronic job centre to be owned and managed by the Youth Employment Agency (YEA).

Construction of the centre is expected to be completed by the end of this year and it will link job seekers and employers to a common platform as part of efforts to address the unemployment situation in the country.

It will also advertise jobs in Ghana, both from the public and the private sectors, and reach out to the people who are the target of those job openings.

The platform will help not only those seeking employment but also serve as a transition point for those in various temporary government job modules to move into permanent employment.

The establishment of the job centre comes on the heels of the Nation Builders Corps which was launched on Wednesday by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Currently, the YEA has temporarily engaged about 65,000 youth in its various modules, including Youth in Community Teaching, Youth in Community Policing, Youth in Health Extension, Youth in Prison, Youth in Fire Service and Youth in Coastal Sanitation.

The Daily Graphic has gathered that about 30,000 YEA beneficiaries are expected to exit this month and their re-engagement is said to be uncertain until the job centre comes on stream to link them up with potential employers to enable them to transition into permanent employment.

Permanent jobs

Apprising the Daily Graphic in an interview on the status of the job centre, the Director of Corporate Affairs at the YEA, Mr Emmanuel Kwasi Afriyie, said the purpose of the centre was to provide permanent jobs for the youth, unlike what currently pertained at the YEA where beneficiaries were not on permanent engagement.

He explained that the modules under the YEA were not sustainable for which reason, the coming into effect of the job centre was to ensure more sustainable jobs to people who would apply for jobs through the platform.

Mr Afriyie submitted that the job centre would have options for job seekers to also upload their curriculum vitae for the benefit of employers seeking to recruit people.

Job unit

He stated that a back office to be known as the Job Centre Unit was currently being set up at the YEA with a full complement of dedicated staff to take charge when the centre is finally operational.

He explained that a team from the YEA would liaise with organisations to ascertain vacancies available in those institutions and advertise same at the job centre for interested people to apply.

“The back office would do due diligence on vacancies from organisations that might come before it before it is uploaded onto our system. We want to ensure that everything we put on the centre is credible,” Mr Afriyie told the Daily Graphic.

Unlike the other youth employment avenues, the corporate affairs director noted that the job centre would have no restrictions on qualifications and that every unemployed Ghanaian whether educated or not was qualified to take advantage of the centre.

According to Mr Afriyie, the government’s job centre would go along with making provisions to, among other things, offer career advice and guidance to job seekers and also provide training sessions for institutions that might require the services of the centre to have their staff trained for a fee.

Job centres abroad

In other parts of the world such as in Australia, skills and job centres are the first port of call when looking to enter the workforce, start training, re-skill or for employers to meet their workforce needs.

Such centres provide expert advice on training and employment opportunities such as career advice, job search, assistance to prepare resumes, apprenticeship and training advice and referral to welfare support and financial advice.

The job centre in Britain used to be a staple of the British High Street where the unemployed went to sign on and look for work but the country’s network of job centres is currently undergoing a radical change as the government implements multiple welfare reforms and cuts as part of its continued austerity drive.