The National Organizer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joshua Akamba, has suggested that the party in its administration will not use the lack of academic qualifications as an excuse to deny the youth jobs.
According to him, these academic requirements for jobs have disadvantaged the teeming unemployed youth, particularly supporters of the NDC, who work hard for the party’s victory.
Mr. Akamba said this in Bawku during a mini-rally to canvass for votes ahead of the December polls.
“I know many of the youth here are suffering and working for the NDC. Take and mark my words; there is no way we are going to ask for your certificates. Nobody will ask the youth to bring their certificates before they are given jobs. It is your CV we will ask because everybody in Ghana has a CV so have in mind that when the NDC comes to power, nobody will ask you for your certificates”, he assured.
The opposition party has pledged to create a minimum of one million sustainable jobs if elected.
It also says it has already identified money-saving avenues to fund its ambitious job-creation agenda.
“To start with, we will reset the government’s spending priorities from consumption-related expenditures to capital and productive expenditures that will create jobs and prosperity for all,” the NDC said at a press conference addressed by its Communication Officer, Sammy Gyamfi.
The party also plans to “cut down wasteful expenditures by reducing the number of Ministers by at least 40.”
It says this will translate into savings of GHS63,424,000.
It also intends to reduce the number of presidential staffers by at least 200, “thereby saving the public purse about GHS186,400,000.00 in four years.”
Flagbearer of the party, John Dramani Mahama has also said his government will focus on initiatives that will create and provide jobs, and also introduce free Technical and Vocational Training.
The former President, the NDC will continue to provide the needed infrastructural and developmental projects that it is noted for, but his main focus will be on skills training and providing jobs.
Aside from the one million jobs plan, his promise to provide free TVET and National Apprenticeship Porgramme is to avert the disaster unemployment continues to bring to the nation.
Mr. Mahama has also vowed to rebrand and introduce free Technical and Vocational Education Training from the basic to the tertiary level, which would imbibe in graduates the needed skills and also carve a definite career path for them.
Mr. Mahama disclosed that his interest in the area of TVET gained firm roots from a personal encounter he had when he went to inspect an oil and gas project and was informed by the supervisor that they often bring in professional welders from other countries because Ghana did not have enough trained personnel to deliver the job specifications.
For the out of school youth, Mr. Mahama said under his free National Apprenticeship Programme, the government would engage and paymaster craftsmen in the communities to equip and train the youth in various traditional vocations.
He added that upon completion of their training, the government would give them the needed tools and equipment so that they can earn a living for themselves.
-Citi