The Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, has revealed that in the previous five editions of the Ghana Job Fair, a total of 561 youths got employed across the country.

He noted that although there were 1,455 declared job vacancies available, only 358 males and 203 females with the required skills got employed across the country.

“Out of the over 10,000 participants who participated in the previous Ghana Job Fairs, 47% represented jobseekers, 39% were individuals interested in training opportunities for entrepreneurship, digital economy & technology, while the remaining 14% were in search of employable skills”, he further stated.

Baffour Awuah, who is also the Member of Parliament for the Sunyani West constituency, spoke at the open ceremony of the 2022 Ghana Job Fair in Sunyani in the Bono region.

The two-day fair was under the theme “Promoting sustainable community-based employment and skills training in Ghana”.

Baffour Awuah indicated that although there is a gap between the existing vacancies and the required skills, the government would continue to provide avenues for unskilled individuals to acquire skills.

“We would continue to roll out more programs and interventions to give hope to the teeming youth who hitherto were in a state of despair,” he explained.

The establishment of the National Employment Coordination Committee (NECC), he explained, would play a significant role in bringing together key stakeholders in employment generating sectors and social and development partners to deliberate on and coordinate employment creation programs and projects.

The fair was jointly organized by the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations, the Ghanaian-German Centre for Jobs and Reintegration (GGC), the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), and the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Ghana (AHK Ghana).

Mrs. Regina Bauerochse Barbosa, the Country Director for GIZ Ghana, indicated that Ghana's environment remains paramount to the survival of mankind, hence employers should create eco-friendly jobs which would sustain the world. 

“We must also begin to incorporate green skills in today’s labor market. Green skilled jobs are those that avoid damaging the environment but instead contribute to protecting and restoring its natural resources”, Mrs. Barbosa advised.

She further called on employers to “create an environment which offers their employees an opportunity to reach their full potential, a chance to grow and achieve their ambitions and learn new things about the chosen industry”.

The Bono Regional Minister, Justina Owusu Banahene, maintained that the youth continue to be the agents of change and a force on which every economy thrives.

She, therefore, urged the youth to embrace entrepreneurship as it remains one of the avenues to end unemployment and also take advantage of various government programs and interventions to create an enabling environment to start their businesses.

Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Kofi Agyapong, on his part, admonished training institutions and students to focus on acquiring relevant skills which would enable them to easily secure jobs or run a business.

“It would, therefore, not be far-fetched to suggest that the absence of relevant skills will continue to create high unemployment despite the availability of employment. Our focus must strictly be skills training and acquisition”, Mr. Agyapong suggested.

Seth Nkansah, a participant at the fair, commended the organizers and facilitators for presenting insightful lessons on how to brand themselves for their prospective employers.

Wilfred Bruno, another participant, however, urged the youth to also patronize these kinds of job fairs which present an opportunity to meet directly with employers and learn from their experiences.