President Mills launches new employment model to train 20,000 youth

President Atta Mills

President John Evans Atta Mills, Thursday April 28, 2011, launched a unique model for community development in Ghana in Tamale.

The model, known as the Local Enterprise and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP), is a bold initiative that focuses on training the unemployed to acquire viable skills that will eventually make them self employed with specialised hands-on training, within the shortest possible time in their localities.

Speaking at the launch of the programme, the National Programmes Manager of LESDEP, Mr. Adem Gariba, said, the initiative is to serve as an employment creation avenue through the acquisition of trade, vocational and entrepreneurial skills.

“It would also serve as a means of enhancing the socio-economic standards of the youth in the country…support SMEs to develop and play active roles in development programmes such as SADA, oil and gas industry and also develop the informal sector as a means of contributing towards national development.”

He disclosed that a programme desk has been set up at all metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), to register interested unemployed persons, especially the youth into the programme.

“Our vision is to train and equip 20,000 unemployed people within the 170 Metropolitan/ Municipal/Districts in the country by 2012,” Mr. Gariba stated.

The Programmes Manager outlined some of the benefits of LESDEP as infrastructure for a world- class training facility that has been balanced with an easy-to-understand training module, adding that the training is made available at no cost or at nominal cost to the participants.

He intimated further, that for the programme, state-of-the-art and easy to use trade machines have been lined up, which are pertinent to the socio-economic scenario of Ghana while the profitability of all ventures promoted is guaranteed, because the trade machines are those which are absolutely needed for the development of Ghana.

LESDEP’s Programmes Manager elatedly said, “since it is the vision of the government to create 10,000 jobs annually through LESDEP, am happy to announce that so far 6,000 people have been enrolled. An additional 4,000 shall be recruited before the end of this year 2011.”

LESDEP is a private initiative registered under the auspices of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

By Edmund Smith-Asante

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