Education

350 youths graduate from Yiedie Project

PAbout 350 trainees have graduated from the Youth Inclusive Entrepreneurial Development Initiative for Development (YIEDIE), at the Construction Machinery Mechanic Training Institute (CMMTI) at Burma Camp in Accra.

The second YIEDIE project graduation was under the theme “Creating job opportunities for the youth in the construction sector through TVET-YIEDIE partnership”.

The YIEDIE project, owned by Global Communities, an international non-governmental organisation, is designed to give skills to the youth between the ages of 17-24 in the construction sector.

The YIEDIE project was a partnership between CMMTI and Global Communities in which CMMTI was to train 350 youths in 14 selected construction skill trades areas in the construction industry within a six-month period.

With the successful completion of the first and second contracts of the YIEDIE youth training project in 2016 and 2017 respectively, CMMTI was awarded the third contract of the youth training project in 2018.

The skill trade areas in which the youths were trained include steel bending, Plaster of Paris (POP), road signal installing, filling station canopy fabrication, structural painting, metal welding and fabrication, tile laying and plumbing.

Others include carpentry and joinery, building draughtsmanship, general electricals, block laying and concreting (Masonry), land surveying and aluminium and fibre glass fabrication.

In a briefing, the project co-ordinator, Rev. Lambert D.Batogbee said without the support of Global Communities, many youth would have been without jobs.

He said CMMTI is poised and ever ready to collaborate with all stakeholders who are concerned with the skill development of the teeming youth of our country to ease the unemployment situation.

In a keynote address, the Controller of Apprenticeship, Juliana Nkrumah, in a speech read on her behalf said the construction sector plays an important role in the socio-economic development of the nation adding that the sector provides direct contribution to other critical sectors of the economy such as agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors.

She said unemployment is one of the most critical challenges of our nation and the role of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) in mitigating the situation especially among the youth cannot be overemphasized.

In a welcome address, the institute manager of CMMTI, Mr Emmanuel Kotey Ashie said the role played by CMMTI in imparting skills to our young and other diverse foreign and local nationals which contribute to the growth and development of our country cannot be over-emphasized.

According to him, since 2016, CMMTI in partnership with YIEDIE project has trained and equipped 708 youth for the construction sector, which would to a large extent alleviate unemployment among the youth.

The chairman of the occasion and chairman of the Interim Management Committee of CMMTI,  Eugene Kwame Dompey admonished the trainees to build upon the qualifications they have acquired and not look down on the trade, adding that instead of using social media for other unhelpful purposes, they should use it to market and brand themselves.

Trainees were awarded certificates at the end of the training.

Francis Cofie

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