Government will employ about 5,000 Senior High School (SHS) graduates by end of August 2022 to help with basic health care delivery on Community Health-Based Planning Services (CHPS) compounds across the country.  

They will help nurses with services, including recording medical history and symptoms, conducting physical examinations, and providing simple bedside care to patients, mostly in rural communities. 

Also, 5,000 people would be trained as carpenters, electricians, welders, and construction workers and be provided with a platform to connect to individuals and businesses.  

Alhaji Ibrahim Bashiru, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Operations, Youth Employment Agency (YEA) made this disclosure to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday on the sidelines of the launch of the 2020 Ghana Job Fair.  

The “Green edition” of the fair, themed, “Connecting talents and opportunities” is a partnership between the German Cooperation/GIZ Ghana, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, YEA and the Delegation of German Commerce and Industry in Ghana.  

Alhaji Bashiru said that the Agency was collaborating with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) with the “Community Health Worker” programme to train the selected graduates and “deploy them to our CHPS compounds.” 

He noted that: “The CHPS compounds are usually located in our rural communities, so, they’ll be there to help the regular nurses with record keeping and basic things that would help the nurses to be able to do their work.”  

“Every year, we intend rolling out not less than 2,000 artisans including tillers, tailors, carpenters, and masons. The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Service will get the experts to train them and after that we will deploy them,” the Deputy CEO said.  

Alhaji Bashiru said the Artisanal Directorate of the Agency would work closely with the Ghana Police Service to ensure that beneficiaries had no criminal record, as their services would be accessed through a mobile phone application.  

He said that the Agency would ensure that the Ghana Job fair was sustained to help address the growing unemployment in the country.  

Speaking at the fair, Mr Benjamin Woeston, Head, Ghanaian-German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration, explained that the fair was to connect job seekers and employers with a focus on the promotion of sustainable employment.  

 He noted that youth unemployment and underemployment were major challenges in the country as data by the Ghana Statistical Service showed that about a third of the population between 15 and 24 years were unemployed.  

“At the same time, climate change confronts all of us with the need to adjust our way of going about things economically. Hence, greening the economy will be key to being able to sustain our future,” Mr Woeston, said. 

He, however, noted that such a green economy would require a skilled labour force with “green skills. Employers need skillful personnel that incorporate entrepreneurial and professional spirit,” hence, the development of the green edition of the fair.  

He said the German Government’s cooperation with Ghana had yielded positive outcomes in employment promotion, with about 600 people directly employed through its job fairs.