130 COMPLETE SKILLS TRAINING PROGRAMME (PAGE 42, JUNE 17, 2010)

ONE hundred and thirty eight refugees at the Krisan Refugees Settlement and selected members of the host communities in the Ellembelle District in the Western Region have completed a six-month skills training programme for Human Security Assistance to generate sustainable livelihoods for themselves, their families and communities.
The programme trained 207 beneficiaries at the Charlotte Dolphyne Training Centre at Krisan, out of which 154 sat for the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) examinations. The 138, representing 89.6 per cent of the candidates were successful.
They went through baking, beauty care, dressmaking, Information and Communication (ICT) computer hardware, block laying and masonry, carpentry and joinery, and welding and fabrication.
They also successfully participated in a five-day intensive training course in business skills and entrepreneurship.
The graduates were given start-up kits/materials each at a total cost of GH¢50,000 to start their own businesses in their areas of acquired competence.
The Japanese government funded the programme by providing a budget of US$ 1.7 million through the United Nations Human Security Trust Fund (UNHSTF) to support human security and two main refugee camps in Ghana, namely Buduburam and Krisan. At least, 20 per cent of the programme assistance is targeted to the host communities.
The UN executing agencies are the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), which is the lead agency, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) along with key government of Ghana ministries.
The agencies have so far trained a total of 1,322 refugees and host community members from Buduburam and Krisan far surpassing the 450 originally designed in the Joint Programme Document.
In an address read on behalf the Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, at the graduation ceremony of the 138 graduands at Krisan, he said the ministry was working seriously on the creation of a new vocational training environment that would enable it to provide relevant industry-driven skills to reduce the present mismatch.
“In the new dispensation of skill delivery, ICT and other soft skills will be encouraged to make skill delivery flexible and attractive to make for high patronage and easy articulation,” he said.
Mr Mensah said in the new economic context, there was the high uncertainty on the types of jobs to become available in the labour market and their content in the medium and long term, while wage employment for life was a remnant of the past as people were being exposed to the risk of job loss as well as the opportunity of finding better employment in new jobs if they had the skills to do so.
“This has created the need for curriculum modernisation, which seeks to broaden the content of vocational training programmes for the youth by enlarging the type of vocational skills they develop and prepare for a large spectrum of occupations, giving importance to transversal skills that can be mobilised in different working places and sectors to respond to the requirements of the changing workplace,” he said.
Mr Mensah called for the strengthening of links between the training provision and the world of work as well as the strong involvement of industry in vocational training, which was very crucial.
He said the closer links between training providers and industry were necessary in the definition of training programmes at the local level to ensure higher employability of graduates.
The Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Keiichi Katakami, said he was happy to see that the UN Human Security Fund was being utilised in a wonderful way in the activities of the training programme.
He said the Japanese government considered human security central to poverty reduction and peace building.
“That is precisely why Japan sponsors the UN Human Security Fund, which is to be used for activities like this vocational training,” he said.
Mr Katakami stressed that the activity that gave people tools to live with, knowledge to survive, and a sense of empowerment was crucial to the people like the graduating class, adding that the fund would continue to be utilised by the UN agencies.
In an address read on his behalf, the Minister of the Interior, Mr Martin Amidu, said the relative peace and tranquility in the country had attracted people from all over the world.
He commended the Japanese government for the support and appealed to Japan to expand the programme.
The UNIDO Representative to Ghana and Togo, Dr Francis L. Bartels said through the generosity of the government and people of Japan, UNIDO, the lead agency, along with UNHCR and FAO had been able to implement the joint United Nations programme for Human Security Assistance to refugees at Buduburam and Krisan with 20 per cent of funding directed to activities in the host communities.
He said the two-year programme initiated in September, 2007, was granted an extension by the United Nations Office for Co-ordinating Humanitarian Affairs in order to secure the benefits from the programme to the advantage of refugees and host communities.
The UNHCR Representative in Ghana, Ms Sharon Cooper, stated that with resilience, the beneficiaries could rebuild their lives.
She said the training they had gone through would make them self-sufficient to be able to look into the future with hope.
The Deputy Minister of Energy and Member of Parliament for Ellembelle, Mr Emmanuel Kofi Buah, said the training programme needed the support of everybody.
He said the Charlotte Dolphyne Training Centre was of great importance to the district and the communities since it had been located at a strategic place.