Youth in Tamale trained in vocational skills

The Youth in the Northern Region have been advised to take advantage of training schemes approved by the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) for the various trade associations in the region, to acquire skills for steady employment and sustainable livelihood.

The Training Programme

An official of the Northern Regional Directorate of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), Mr Haruna Mohammed, who gave the advice, also urged the youth who had already acquired vocational skills to organise themselves into groups in order to have access to credit facilities put in place by the government and its development partners, to set up their own businesses.

Mr Mohammed was speaking at the graduation ceremony of 60 youths who had undergone six months of training in smock weaving and modern designs in Tamale.

The training programme, which was free of charge, was organised by the Smock Weavers and Sellers Association of the Tamale Centre for National Culture.

It is one of the skills training programmes approved by COTVET under the Skills Development Fund (SDF) initiative established by the Government of Ghana in 2011. The SDF is funded by the World Bank and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).

Mr Mohammed called on the trades associations in the region to collaborate and share ideas to enable them to develop and preserve northern Ghana’s indigenous art forms and rural entrepreneurial skills. 

He encouraged the beneficiaries of the programme to have business plans and register their businesses into legal entities with the objective of attracting support.

He encouraged parents to allow their female children to venture into trades and vocations regarded as the preserve of men to make them earn decent incomes and reduce their vulnerability.

Handicrafts as part of Tourism

The Northern Regional Manager of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Mr William Ayambire, said handicrafts were an important aspect of tourism and as such the authority would collaborate with the smock weavers and sellers association to promote smock as part of Ghana’s tourism showpiece.

He reiterated the call on the trainees to join forces and build a website to promote their businesses both locally and abroad through the internet.