The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) was established under the Youth Employment Act 2015 (Act 887) to empower young people to contribute meaningfully to socio-economic and sustainable development of the nation. This proves the youth have been factored-in for nation-building.
Africa’s population is projected to double by 2050 to around 2.4 billion people. Currently the continent is home to over 1.2 billion people, over 60% of whom fall below the age of 25.
The question remains whether Africa is prepared to match the attendant social, political and economic challenges that will come when the population doubles by 2050.
There is widespread frustration and agitation by and among young people over limited economic opportunities, growing corruption, rising unemployment, and limited opportunities for political participation.
This growing frustration is increasingly manifested in migration of young people from the continent and the global appeal of terrorism and violent extremism – and the alarmingly high number of young people being recruited into these extremist groups.
Job creation naturally featured highly in the campaign promises of the ruling NPP government, and it has rolled out a number of programmes geared to give employment opportunities to the youth in particular.
Apart from the one million jobs created in the past 14 months by Akufo-addo-led administration that was announced on May Day, Employment and Labour Relations Minister Ignatius Baffour Awuah has announced that YEA is about to launch a Job Centre – which is a platform that allows potential employers and employees to meet online as well as off-line for the purpose of securing, obtaining and creating jobs.
The innovation is a welcome one, since technology drives development and is an innovative method of creating and obtaining jobs for the youth who are scattered all over the country. All a potential job seeker has to do is go online, apply and process the needed information.
The minister indicated that the Centre will have a training hub that includes training in CV preparation, interviews and work-readiness skills, among others. Today’s youth are digitally savvy, and such avenues must be available for the numerous young job seekers that are yearning for employment opportunities. It will save job seekers the money that will transport them to cities and towns just to apply for a job or conduct an interview.
Most Job applications are done online so the Centre will bring a lot of ease to job seekers, and this initiative must be commended.
