The General Secretary of Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC), Rev. Emmanuel T. Barrigah, has assured government of the Council’s total commitment in the long term to. deal with youth unemployment in Ghana.
Rev. Barrigah gave the assurance in Accra on Sunday, April 11, 2021, during the Official Closing and Graduation Ceremony of some 70 trainees of Beads and Millinery production under the GPCC-Government of Ghana (GoG) Partnership in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Skill for Sustainable Youth Enterprise Development organised by GPCC.
The General Secretary, therefore, appealed to government to strongly consider a longer-term scaling up of the partnership with the Church to help reduce to the barest minimum the cancer of youth unemployment in Ghana.
The Council partnered with Government through the Ministry of Finance to mobilise over 200 member Churches and to coordinate the implementation of a TVET Skill for Sustainable Youth Enterprise Development Programme, according to him.
The partnership, he said, was very necessary because the youth in most deprived communities after completing high school are mostly unable to pursue higher level education, thus “compelled in some instances to migrate to the cities in search of greener pastures and often exposed to social vices that affect their lives, values and the society at large.”
“The hope on the faces of these youth continues to dwindle as they are faced with the challenges in the pursuit of economic livelihoods,” Rev. Barrigah added.
Reflecting on this reality in the Ghanaian context, Rev. Barrigah pointed out that a significant percentage of the youth are likely to be unskilled, unemployed or both, and which has worsened by the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Touching on entrepreneurship, General Secretary noted: “this Programme after its launch in January 2021 has mobilised and leveraged on the existing TVET infrastructure of our member Churches across the country to identify, recruit and equip hundreds of youth in Ghana with high quality entrepreneurial based employable vocational and technical skills in partnership with the Government of Ghana.”
“We are therefore happy to report that over 1,300 young people drawn from member Churches of the Council have been equipped with skills in Plaster Board Ceiling installation, Bio-Fill Digester Construction, 3-D Epoxy Decoration, CCTV Camera installation, Electric Security Fencing installation, Baking, Interior Decoration, Beads and Millinery production, Soap and Bleach making,” he said.
Commending government, the GPCC General Secretary noted that, this partnership has yielded fruitful results as the funding for this Programme has been fully paid for by the Government of Ghana.
“This Programme did not only provide raw TVET skills trainings for these youth, but it also integrated entrepreneurial skills, business development, business registration support as well as the provision of start-up kits for all graduating trainees as a way to ensuring that they quickly put to good use the skills acquired after the training,” he added
Congratulating all trainees for their participation, hard work and commitment to the training Programme, he advised them to go out there as good Ambassadors of Christ and also of the Programme to put to good use of all that they have learnt during this period of training.
“It is our prayer that through you great industrial and business establishments would spring forth in Ghana to make our economy better and reduce the youth unemployment situation,” Rev. Barrigah prayed.
