120 district coodinators of LESDEP undergo orientation
Over 120 district coordinators of the Local Enterprise and Skills Development Program (LESDEP), a model for community development in Ghana, are undergoing a four-day orientation to equip them with skills to deliver on their duties.
LESDEP, which was launched in April this year, focuses on training the unemployed people to acquire viable skills that will eventually make them self employed with specialized hands-on training, within their localities.
Speaking at the training session, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, was optimistic that through the programme youth unemployment could be mitigated.
He said it was also a signal of government’s commitment to youth development as exemplify in the Youth Policy and action plan.
“In this vein co-ordinators must see themselves as people positioned to make a change in the lives of Ghaianains through the programme to emerge as big role players and entrepreneurs in the country and beyond,” he said.
Mr Ankrah encouraged the coordinators to identify and nurture latent entrepreneurial talents to help accelerate economic development.
He urged coordinators to desist from nepotism and rather be fair to everybody, saying that strong monitoring and evaluation system were in place to measure their performance.
Mr. Adem Gariba , the National Programs Manager of LESDEP, said the orientation would help the coordinators to achieve the goals of the programme, adding that it would create employment through the acquisition of trade, vocational and entrepreneurial skills.
He called for an effective public private partnership to create jobs.
LESDEP aims to train and equip 20,000 unemployed people within the 170 Metropolitan/ Municipal/Districts in the country by 2012 through easy-to-understand training module at no cost or at nominal costs to the participants.
LESDEP is a private initiative registered under the auspices of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.
The coordinators duties include ensuring profitability of beneficiaries, set up ventures by providing them with business advisory and other support services at the district level and to monitor and ensure that service providers deliver up-to-date training and skill enhancement support to beneficiaries at the district levels.
The coordinators drawn from the southern sector will receive training in ethics, handling stakeholders, effective communication and customer service, people management and conflict resolution among others.
Source: GNA