The GNPC Foundation is providing support to 341 artisans drawn from across the Greater Accra region to sit for the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) proficiency exams.

This forms part of the 2021 edition of the Foundation’s livelihood empowering programme dubbed: The Skilled Artisans Project (SAP); implemented to help the training and equipping of mostly young artisans across Ghana with vocational skills and tools needed to improve their livelihoods and economic wellbeing.

The examination which started on Tuesday 1st February 2022 at various NVTI designated centers across the region ended on Friday 4th February 2022.

The 2021 SAP begun with the registration and enrollment of trainee artisans in 6 regions namely, Greater Accra, Eastern, Ashanti, Central, Western and Western North regions.

Having undergone refresher training in various vocational skills such as plumbing, fashion, carpentry, auto-mechanics, general electrical, and aluminum fabrication among others, the examination is aimed at ensuring that Artisans meet the standardisation requirements and qualification of their respective skill areas and thus, increasing their suitability for job placements and handing them the requisite know-how to start enterprises of their own.

GNPC SAP remains one of the strategies designed and implemented by the GNPC Foundation, and in collaboration, with Aseda Foundation to add value to the lives of youth artisans in Ghana; offering them an opportunity to improve their crafts and become economically capable of responsibly catering for themselves, their families and contributing positively to society.

In the subsequent stages of this program, beneficiaries will be taken through soft skills training in standards of business and entrepreneurship.

The Business Advisory Centre (BAC) of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) will take beneficiaries through course models such as Book-keeping, Marketing/ Sales, Branding, Customer Relations, Attitude to Work, Safety at Work and Entrepreneurship.

Successful artisans will undergo a graduation ceremony where each would be handed a set of tools relevant to their skills to help set them up for their entrepreneurial journeys.

Already under the project, over 800 out of a targeted number of 2050 artisans from the Central, Western and Western North Regions have been supported to sit the NVTI exams.

Artisans enrolled in the programme in the Eastern and Ashanti Regions are expected to also benefit from same in the coming months.