The Ghanaian German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration (GGC) is providing skills apprenticeships and self-employment support for 150 young people in five communities in the Bono Region with the launch of its project ‘Community Works Training and Start-Up Support’.

The project, which has a budget of 48,000 Euro and funded by German Development Cooperation, is aimed at reducing youth unemployment by providing self-employment opportunities. Through this, it will provide alternatives to irregular migration whilst at the same time support the successful socioeconomic reintegration of returning migrants into their host societies.

The GGC, which is implemented by GIZ Ghana, is part of the German Development Cooperation with Ghana, commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Through its collaboration with the Ministry for Employment and Labour Relations and its Labour Department, the GGC provides individual counselling services and advice for both returning migrants and the local population in Ghana, economic and social (re)integration support, information on vocational and educational prospects, and employment opportunities including entrepreneurship (self-employment). Also, the GGC advises on regular migration, raises awareness on the challenges of irregular migration, whilst offering capacity-building support for the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.

According to a Senior Advisor at the GGC, Mr Kwaku Yeboah, inability to access employment opportunities among the youth is widely cited as a major contributory factor to the decision to leave family and friends in search of opportunities abroad. He added that, “in partnership with other German Cooperation projects such as the Program for Sustainable Economic Development under the Migration and  Employment Promotion Component (MEP-PSED), the GGC has provided 34,665 opportunities (direct employment, entrepreneurship support, counselling among others) to the Ghanaian youth and diverse reintegration support schemes for returning migrants.”

The apprenticeship programme shall train 150 unemployed youth, including returning migrants in the Bono Region (a focus region of the Ghanaian German Centre’s services) in readily available community and district demand-driven services such as Tiling, Masonry, Plumbing, Tailoring, Dressmaking, Hairdressing and Cosmetology etc. The beneficiary communities are Nsoatre, Odumasi, Chiraa, Fiapre and Kwasibourkrom in the Jaman South Municipality. The beneficiaries and vocational areas were selected through a comprehensive stakeholder engagement and training needs analysis (TNA).

The GCC will support the trainees to form cooperatives to help promote their services better.