There has been various approaches and interventions adopted by countries and agencies in their effort at tackling this problem.

Ghana’s major intervention in this area has been the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) during President J.A.K Kuffour’s administration.

This programme and the subsequent programmes of Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) and the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) implemented some interventions that did not make much impact on the unemployment situation in the country.

These interventions essentially looked at immediate stop gap employment that was not sustainable in the long term.

They were based on modules that provided immediate short-term employment and in some cases shoddy short-term skills training.

In the year 2016, the Authority in collaboration with UNESCO Ghana office, successfully trained twenty young people in the area of App Development.

This was to enhance young people’s participation in the Digital Business World. The program, though on a pilot basis, offered opportunities for the development of skills in the IT Industry for the youth of Ghana, and has served as a worthy and successful intervention to inform the current initiative.

The ICT Training Programme therefore aims at building a body of qualified human resource to produce quality technology driven products to respond to the needs of the market.

The Programme does not aim at offering direct jobs but impart knowledge and develop skills over a twelve (12) weeks period.

The Training Programme that involves Consultants in the ICT Training Industry and a Supervising Consultant will have Regional Training Centers across the ten (10) Regions of the country with each Region training an average of Three Hundred (300) young people.

The project is designed to equip the trainees essentially with digital marketing insights, skills, and ancillary competencies.

At the end of the programme, trainees will be expected to set-up and operate in their respective regions to bring their knowledge to serve and improve the trade and marketing environment in the Regions.

They are to identify entrepreneurs and budding enterprises and products with marketing potential and project them through the digital marketing platform for visibility patronage and sales.

It is envisaged that trainees will identify and take advantage of the enormous opportunities in their localities and beyond and secure for themselves sustainable good income through the application of knowledge and skills acquired.

BACKGROUND

As a country, one of the biggest challenges that confronts us and virtually threatens our peace and security is Youth Unemployment. Our population dynamics has the youth cohort in the majority.

The annual output of Educational and Training Institutions and other youth who become due for employment is increasing exponentially without the corresponding job openings both in the Public and Private Sectors.

The Public Sector of Ghana employs about Six Hundred Thousand (600,000) people, a situation our Development Partners have advised on as not cost effective on account of productivity.

Consequently there is a trend of employment freeze staff rationalization and down-sizing of organizations in the Public Sector that has significantly reduced the rate and employment capacity of most Public Sector Institutions.

Private Sector employment also has its own challenges due to economic difficulties that the nation has gone through, in recent, past coupled with the years of power supply, economic growth and expansion problems.

Unemployment is widely regarded as one of the key labour market indicators and a good measure of current economic activity.

If one uses the strict ILO definition, the unemployed population consists of all persons (15 years and older) who are available for work and actively seeking for a job during the reference period.
Thus, persons aged 15 years and older, who within the reference period, were without jobs but were “potentially” available for jobs are considered unemployed.

About 1,250,913 persons 15 years and older are estimated to be unemployed. Of this number, about 57.2 percent or 714,916 are females while 42.8 percent or 535,997 are males. Nearly one in six (58.6%) or 733,522 of the unemployed are located in urban areas and 41.4 percent or 517,391 are in rural areas.

In terms of age, nearly 7 in every 10 (68.8%) unemployed persons or 860,740 is within the youthful age group (15-34 years).

In urban areas, 72.7 percent of the unemployed population is youthful compared to 63.3 percent of their rural counterparts.

Ghana’s definition of the Youth as contained in the National Youth Policy of Ghana published in 2010 by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, defined the youth as “persons who are within the age bracket of fifteen (15) and thirty-five (35)”.

According to Ghana Statistical Service 35.9 percent of the population constitutes the youth (15-35 years), whereas 19.4 percent is found to be the population 15-24 years. Findings of the survey also indicate that 55.6 percent of the population 15-35 years lives in urban areas. The proportion of females (56.2 %) in this age group living in urban areas is higher than males (54.9%). (GSS, 2015 Labour Force Report).

Faced with this situation, the Government has to find innovative ways of getting the teaming youth of Ghana employed.

Mandated by National Youth Authority Act, 2016 (Act 939) is the lead Government Agency responsible for Youth Development in Ghana and among others is clothed with the responsibility of identifying and implementing interventions that will lead to the generation of employment for the Youth to reduce the rate of Youth Unemployment considerably.

RATIONALE

The World is increasingly becoming a digital community or village where now almost all transactions can be done or are done digitally. The influence of the digital world has cut up with almost every sphere of human activity. In the field of photography the world was moved from paper film to digital cameras.

Artificial intelligence has made computer to become exponentially better in understanding the world.

Uber was just a software but now hosts the largest transport business in the world. Facebook now has pattern recognition software that can recognize faces better than human. In 2018 the first self-driving cars will appear for the public.

There is therefore the overwhelming demand and imperative for Ghana to take its rightful place in the world’s technologically savvy community. According to the 2016 Annual Ghana Social Media Report, 7,958,675 of the population can be found online ranking the country 47th highest internet user. The report stated that the average Ghanaian spent not less than 3hours 30minutes browsing the internet on his/her phone, (CRIQAFRICA LIMITED AND ADVANCE MEDIA).

The Youth therefore as the majority of the working population and as the majority unemployed needed to be equipped to take advantage of the huge space and employment opportunities that knowledge in information technology and its various platforms and applications offer.

JUSTIFICATION

The use of ICT as a tool for economic growth and poverty reduction is a multidimensional challenge including socio-economic, political, institutional, and technical aspects. Its contribution to economic competitiveness and growth is one of its most expected and obvious outcomes.

ICT is attracting considerable share of investments, producing jobs, and increasing gross domestic product (GDP). It is also an important source of tax revenue. The increased economic role of ICT in a country will signal declining dependence on commodity exports and prices. It will also signal a strengthened role of knowledge and skills in job creation, entrepreneurship and economic growth.
The National Youth Policy Priority Areas 6.1.4 Information and Communication Technology provided ICT as necessary for personal and business success in today’s changing world.

The policy stated that the youth should be encouraged to use ICT for productive purposes.
E-Marketing and Digital Entrepreneurship Training Programme is an innovative National Youth Authority initiative that aims to engage a critical mass of young people to acquire basic technical skills and confidence to develop, promote, and sell local and International products through the digital market platform.

This Initiative seeks to demonstrate that programming mobile apps can be fun and requires different skill sets and ideas.

The initiative also aims to provide an opportunity for young men and women to be introduced to entrepreneurship and to create viable employment opportunities in the mobile/Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) industry.

The National Youth Authority from the standpoint of a key mandate to provide the youth with opportunities for skills training, employment and in the principle of “self-efficacy” is mounting nationwide outreaches towards youth skills and entrepreneurial developments with the goal to “achieve the Training of 3,000 youth, mostly the vulnerable and most at risk, influencing grassroots and local business by close of December 2018”.

This initiative is part of the process put in place to ensure that attainment of the goal.
Further, at a time when the world is looking for new ways to build peace and sustainable development, encouraging innovation and creativity of the youth it will be vital in effectively addressing these challenges.

As the global community works with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve it by 2030, this Initiative recognizes the significant potential of smart mobile applications to achieve the SDGs ‐‐ especially as the next 1 billion new internet connections will be from mobile devices in the hands of young people in developing countries, with Ghana included.

By advocating incorporating ICT development trainings for young people, E-Marketing Initiative aims at leveraging efforts geared to developing the capacities of these young people and raise awareness about the potential of mobile phones in everyday life.

E-Marketing and Digital Media Entrepreneurship Training has the potential to accelerate access to this vocational training along with informal and formal education.

It can help create a more practical and current set of learning tools to match the rapidly changing skills required in today’s workforce, building a new generation with the required skills and confidence to succeed in an emerging knowledge society.

Consequently, this initiative will focus on the training and provision of e-social marketing opportunities for young people.

SCOPE OF THE PROGRAMME

The ICT Training Programme is an intervention to provide technology driven Entrepreneurial Skills to the Youth with state funding. The Programme is especially targeted at the Youth age 15 -35 years with minimum knowledge in ICT.

An above average knowledge might be an advantage.

The design of the Programme provides Digital Marketing skills that enable trainees to get the attention of users of social media and other electronic space to source for products and services.

It will also provide beneficiaries with basic digital media management skills to optimize their marketing efforts, find new job opportunities and create new businesses.

The National Youth Authority (NYA) is the Agency with the responsibility for the implementation of the programme.

The NYA has been in collaborating with a number of organizations including District Assemblies and Members of Parliament to ensure the success of the Programme.

OBJECTIVES

To Train qualified Human Resource to produce quality technology driven products and services in response to the needs of the market.

To use ICT as a tool for economic growth and poverty reduction among the Youth.

To train the youth in Digital Management Skills to optimize their marketing efforts and create new businesses.
To equip the youth with Digital Marketing Skills to enable them establish and run their own business.

IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISM

The NYA shall institute a Stakeholder Consultation and Implementation Teams at the National and Regional levels to play an active and important role in the implementation of the Programme.
The Management of the NYA and the Ministry of Youth and Sports shall oversee the Coordination, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Programme.

The National Youth Policy provides a framework for collective action and coordination of strategies among Stakeholders.

Stakeholders at National, Regional and District levels shall be encouraged to position themselves as bridges between training providers and beneficiaries to ensure that local content was duly considered.

–

By: NYA

The post NYA, Accra digital centre to host digital marketing training programme appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This, the Authority hopes, will put to an end to recent acts of vandalism by the youth who are demanding jobs from their party leadership.

Currently, there is a public outcry over the increasing spate of vigilantism by some irate youth of the NPP.

[contextly_sidebar id=”l4bUSGRwQ2VtmDfHGzK0DFcmZLVov59n”]Citi News has reported on over 2o cases of attacks by pro-NPP vigilante groups, under the Akufo-Addo government.

Some of these have been attacks on public officials and some state installations and offices across the country.

Addressing journalists on Tuesday, the Chief Executive Officer for the NYA, Emmanuel Asigri, said the move to find the rampaging youth jobs will solve the problem at hand.

“It is not an Akufo-Addo demographic. It is not an NPP demographic. It is a Ghanaian demographic requiring the impassioned contribution from all those who lead. The government’s plan to create jobs is a private sector plan. A private sector plan is an entrepreneurship plan. There is 100 million dollars with the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation plan for any ordinary young Ghanaian for this year. Entering into next year alone, we are targeting to have 70, 000 young people put on the various models of YEA. We have partnered with the District Assemblies with one of our models where we are going to train about 500 young people who will maintain street lights across the country.”

“It is on this note that we urge the young people causing disturbances and public tension at Youth Employment Agency offices, School Feeding facilities, NADMO and District Assembly offices to read the game instead of invading the pitch. Seize the moment instead of seizing office keys and unlock their potential instead of locking padlocks. Again, we at NYA want to use this opportunity to call on those who should help stop this menace, especially the Ghana Police Service led by IGP David Asante Apeatu. ”

The commitment of the Akufo-Addo government towards an end to vigilantism, has been called into question following heightened acts of violence undertaken by vigilante groups affiliated to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).

In most of the instances, arrests are not made, and in the few instances of arrests, the suspects are either released later or serve lenient punishments when they are tried in court.

Critics of the government, who have questioned the party’s commitment in dealing with vigilante groups acting lawlessly in their name, were emboldened last week when another group of rampaging NPP youth, invaded a police station and freed party communicators who were in police custody.

–

By: Farida Shaibu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post NYA to find jobs for rampaging NPP youth appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The one-day workshop which will be addressed by the Chief of Staff, will look at how the government and the private sector can effectively tackle issues of unemployment and job creation.

The CEOs and top government officials will deliberate on how to re-channel their corporate social responsibilities into a more focused agenda to address unemployment.

CEOs from 32 banks, 24 oil-related companies, 20 big-name retail companies, and 16 automobile and airline companies, 10 mining companies, six pharmaceuticals and other health service providers as well as the five telcos, will all have one agenda to deliberate on.

The Chief of Staff, Madam Frema Osei-Opare, is the headline speaker for the forum which will also be supported by the Business Development Minister, Mohammed Awal.

Lessons from developed countries like South Africa will be at hand for the CEOs.  The youngest MP, Francisca Oteng-Mensah, who was 23 years old when she won the Kwabre East seat, will make a case for greater attention to youth development.

Ghana has an extremely youthful population with at least 57% of its 27 million citizens being less than 25 years. While unemployment data is scanty, a 2006 National Security report pegged unemployment at 26% of the population. More than a decade later, many believe the situation has worsened.

Deputy CEO of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Bright Acheampong, said: “the forum gives the CEOs an opportunity to interact among themselves and also plan on how to help government look at the unemployment situation.”

–

By: Sammi Wiafe/citifmonline.coom/Ghana

The post Youth Authority to meet CEOs over unemployment appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

His appointment takes effect from April 18th, 2017.

Mr. Bright Acheampong is an alumnus of the University of Ghana, having graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science.

A student activist, Mr. Acheampong has held various political positions on campus including SRC General Assembly Member and Press Secretary-University of Ghana Parliament.

He has also attended International Youth Forums including a Seminar on Building the capacity of Non-Governmental Organizations for Developing countries, in China.

Until his appointment, Mr. Acheampong served as Senior Executive Aide to the National Organiser and Ag. General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. John Boadu.

Established in 1974, and under the supervision of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the NYA’s objective is to secure improved livelihoods for the youth, through effective implementation of the National Youth Policy, in partnership with Youth-focused groups, the donor community, Ministries, Departments, Agencies, and the media.

–

By: Sammi Wiafe/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Akufo-Addo appoints Bright Acheampong as deputy NYA CEO appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Emmanuel Asigiri, an aide to former vice President, the late Aliu Mahama has been asked to take over the management of the youth authority until the necessary constitutional obligations are fulfilled to appoint a substantive coordinator.

The National Youth Authority has been without a head since the change in government.

The National Youth Authority is an agency under the Ministry of Youth and Sports and is governed by a Board of Trustees and is headed by a National Coordinator.

The authority is the statutory body established to coordinate and facilitate youth development activities in the country.

Some of the State Youth Development Organisations under NYA’s wing are the National Youth Employment Program, the National Service Secretariat and the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA).

The NYA registers youth groups and associations throughout the country to build data for effective programming.

It also provides out-of-school youth with skills training through the Youth Leadership and Skills training Institutes.

–

By: Pearl Akanya-Ofori/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Nana Addo appoints acting NYA head appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

So if one does want to date a friend’s ex, what things are a definite yes-yes or a no-no?

1. Don’t gossip. It’s common to assume that anything shared with you is by default shared with your partner as well; however, your friend might be much less comfortable speaking to you in confidence if she thought the details of her personal life were going to be relayed to someone who used to share her toothbrush. (I’m going to use female pronouns for your friend, and male pronouns for your sweetie, for the sake of simplicity; however, every rule here applies no matter the genders of the participants.) Keep your friend’s secrets. The reverse is also true; no matter how much you love discussing your dude with your besties, his ex can probably live without hearing the details of his current sex life. Save it for your diary or for anyone who didn’t date him.

2. Don’t trash talk. It’s OK to come to your partner for advice if you’re arguing with your friend, or vice versa, but absolutely resist the urge to belittle or insult one of them to the other. This can be extremely tempting if they ended on bad terms and you know you’ll find a sympathetic ear. However, in order to maintain a healthy relationship with both of them, it’s crucial that you never seem even a little like you’re taking sides in their breakup or casting either one as the bad guy, even months or years after the fact. If you need to vent about one of them, find a neutral party.

3. Respect boundaries without making assumptions. For instance, if your friend doesn’t want to go to parties where her ex will be in attendance, don’t pressure her. But don’t assume she doesn’t want an invite if you haven’t asked! In general, allow your friend and your sweetheart to decide how much contact they want with each other, and don’t push them to associate if they’re not into it. Remember that you can love them both without them necessarily having to enjoy each other. This goes for friends and partners who haven’t dated, too, now that I think of it. Set aside time for each of them and honor it — don’t drag your lover along on girls’ night out (not even if your lover is a lady; queer chicks are so badabout this), and don’t invite your friend to what was supposed to be a romantic dinner at home.

4. No comparisons. Don’t ask your man if you’re prettier/smarter/better at Scrabble than his last girlfriend. Don’t do this ever, but especially not if his last girlfriend is the person you’re going rock climbing with Sunday. No matter what his answer is, it’s going to make things weird. Besides, comparing yourself to anybody — even if you come out ahead — is alwaysgoing to lead to feeling crappy, because basing your self-esteem on where you stand relative to someone else is Not Healthy. So don’t seek out comparisons, and if your dude brings up the topic, tell him you’re not interested in hearing it. You and your friend are not in competition, except when you’re actually playing Scrabble.

5. Don’t be paranoid. Don’t try to keep your boyfriend and your bud from associating because you’re afraid they still have feelings for each other, and don’t constantly seek reassurance that that’s not the case. Trust that your dude is with you because he likes you and you’re awesome, not because he’s biding his time until your friend takes him back. Trust that your friend is happy you’ve found someone you dig, not plotting to sabotage your love. And don’t ever use jealousy or insecurity over their past relationship to excuse irrational or controlling behavior on your part. Of course, if your sweetie gives you a legitimate reason to believe he’s untrustworthy, get out of there stat, but if there’s really nothing wrong, don’t create problems where none exist.

6. Don’t pry into their relationship. It may be tempting ask your friend to analyze what happened between the two of them so that you can avoid making the same mistakes, but resist that urge. Likewise, don’t grill your boyfriend on what went wrong or insist that he account for his behavior throughout the entire time they dated. Their relationship is between them; it’s not your cautionary tale or your soap opera. If they choose to share details with you, that’s fine — you don’t need to stick your fingers in your ears, unless an overt comparison is being made (see No. 4) — but don’t push. Your relationship and theirs are separate things, and you don’t need to know anything they don’t care to tell you.

7. Recognize that some exes really are off-limits. It’s easier, of course, to have hard-line rules — “exes are never OK” versus “exes are totally fine” — but that’s not the world we live in. If someone seriously mistreated your friend (we’re talking emotional or physical abuse, infidelity, lying, stealing, etc.), don’t date him, no matter how awesome his butt looks in jeans. This has nothing to do with some kind of Eternal Dibs situation, and everything to do with the fact that, by choosing to build a relationship with someone who treated her horribly, you’re telling your friend you don’t think what he did to her was all that bad. Just walk away. There are lots of people out there who are just as good in bed and haven’t traumatized anyone you care about. Set the precedent that people who are awful to your friends are people who don’t get to see you naked, and your life will be the better because of it.

–

Source: Cosmopolitan.com

The post 7 crucial rules for dating your friend’s ex appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The good news is that there’s no real sell-by-date to stop dating, so there’s less pressure to find Mr or Mrs Right and settle down than there used to be.With this in mind, here are some of the people you should definitely try and get out of your system early on, to open you up for new opportunities with nice non-psychopaths…

 

1. The politically dubious (he seemed so nice on his dating profile…)

 

He hasn’t got swastikas tattooed on his scalp but he’s a man of conviction and says things like ‘By God this country has gone to the dogs’ and ‘By God those men over there aren’t holding hands are they?? THEY ARE’ and ‘Can’t we round up all the immigrants and either force them to integrate or deport them?’

Not one you can bring to dinner parties, or any other social event. Tell him your great-grandmother is Romanian and watch him melt away like Putin at a Gay Pride rally.

 

2. The sex addict

 

The positives are obvious, but the negatives? The exhaustion, darling. Oh and none of your housemates can look you in the eye because your new bedfellow is LOUD.

 

3. The bad boy

 

If you’re immune to this specimen, all the better. If not, get it out of the way early, like, in your teens.

There’s a reason you don’t get many women over 30 still whimpering ‘but I just love a bad boy’ – most of us have a limit to how much crap we’re prepared to take, and most of us hit it by our mid-20s.

 

4. The vacuous ‘too attractive for her own good’ girl

 

She never messages you back, looks bored on dates and is generally a bit of an arse. Have pity – she’s never had to develop the social basics thanks to a lifetime of people queuing up to tell her she’s perfect JUST AS SHE IS.

Worship her beauty for a while, then when she inevitably dumps you for number three in this list, find someone you can actually have a proper chat with (as someone really clever once said, beauty and everything else is transitory).

 

5. The fitness obsessive

 

Not the ‘relatively fit but won’t say no to a drink’ one. The ‘sleeps standing up to burn more calories, yaks your head off about protein supplements, regularly asks you to feel his quads’ one.

Or alternatively, the female fitty: unfeasibly perky yoga and aerobics-obsessed lycra enthusiast, wafting wholesome, sweet-smelling sweat from her expensive hair extensions at all times.

Nice to date for a while but ultimately your toxic unfitness will drive them away, or else you’ll get sick of them trying to convert you.

 

6. The irreversibly emotionally damaged

 

Depending on the level and severity of emotional damage, this one might be a keeper. But if she/he is still crying over their ex, has clear daddy issues (i.e. sucks her thumb and asks to sit on your lap), or punches holes in the walls to ‘let off rage’, then get this one over with – swiftly.

 

7. The hippy

 

You’ll fall hard for their musty dreadlock-swaying, non-conformist, free-loving, smelling-vaguely-of-wet-earth ways. Then they’ll dump you for a fellow vegan who’s actually read Bob Marley’s biography and you’ll wonder why you ever thought you’d miss the horrifying smell of the decomposing matter in their homemade indoor composter.

 

8. The angst-ridden hipster

 

He or she alternates between artsy cultured posing and hollow-eyed weeping over Nietzsche or Plath (never both). Go easy on the poor tortured soul.

 

9. The older man/woman

 

They’re impossibly self-assured, ooze confidence and seem so much more worldly than people your own age.But two things make this relationship unsustainable:

1. The vast world-experience chasm between you.

2. Your friends think it’s cool but sort of creepy, and they find it weird hanging out with you as a couple.

 

Source: Metro.co.uk

The post 9 people you should date before you’re 30 appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.