The call for proposals for the Large Skills Development Investment Projects (LSDIP) in Ghana aimed at boosting the skills, entrepreneurship and Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) has been launched in Accra.
Organisations, both in the public and private sectors engaged in technical and skills training are enjoined to submit innovative and sustainable skills development and entrepreneurship projects and programmes, which have the capacity to provide employment for the youth, women, migrants, refugees and People with Disabilities.
The LSDIP is under the Skills Initiative for Africa (SIFA), an initiative of the African Union Commission, being financed by the German government to strengthen occupation prospects for young people in Africa.
Under the SIFA, the German government is providing 60 million Euros to support the four-year programmes being implemented by the AU’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency), simultaneously in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tunisia, Kenya and Ghana.
Speaking at the launch, the Deputy Minister of Education in charge of TVET, Mrs Gifty Twum-Ampofo, said technical and vocational education held good prospects for job creation and development of the country.
She said TVET education had catapulted the development of the Middle East and Asian countries and Ghana could also tap on TVET education for the development of the country.
The deputy minister said Ghana with vast human and natural resources could not give further excuses for her economic stagnation due to her failure to invest massively and pay attention to TVET.
She said TVET education would propel the economic development of the country hence the current government was investing heavily in the sector.
“The government appreciates that no country will develop without mainstreaming TVET and skills education her development agenda,” she said.
Mrs Twum-Ampofo expressed gratitude to the German government for allocating 60 million Euros to sponsor the SIFA project.
A representative of the AUDA/NEPAD, Mrs Fati N’Zi-Hassane in her remark said studies by the NEPAD indicated that Africa’s youth with the ages between 25 and 30 years, would constitute more than half of the continent’s population by the year 2030.
That, she said, called for measures to be taken by African governments to initiate programmes to create employment for the teeming unemployed youth, saying, Africa’s demographic dividend could become a time bomb if not harnessed well.
Mrs N’Zi-Hassane said the call for proposals for the LSDIP was the first window of proposals under the SIFA and each successful application would receive a grant of three million Euros to implement their projects.
The German Ambassador to Ghana, Christoph Retzlaff, said his government was committed to supporting TVET in the country, adding that the German government had allocated additional 19 million Euros in that direction.
He said more German companies had expressed commitment to establish plants in Ghana and that would help boost TVET education in the country.
Photo: SIFA folder/ 04-04-2019/SAMBA
CAPTION: The German Ambassador to Ghana and the Deputy Minister of Education together with the participants of the event
By Kingsley Asare and Evangel Kelvin Ainoo
