The Ghana National Tailors and Dressmakers Association (GNTDA) in Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region has graduated 188 apprentices after a successful four-year training programme in entrepreneurship skills. The association provided practical training and motivated members to proactively meet and exceed consumer demands and expectation.
The training is aimed at providing a central organization for tailors and seamstresses nationwide through defined objectives: harnessing essential skills and resources for an effective impact as a major trainer; evolving a national fashion identity and making Ghanaians appreciative of their culture manifested in their clothing.
The graduates were given certificates and results of their exams to indicate that they are qualified to go into the job market to show their talents to the world.
The Regional Chairman of GNTDA, Moomin Sead, speaking at the ceremony noted that tailors and seamstresses play critical role in human development as almost everyone depends on them for their outfits.
According to him, lack of skill is often cited as a major impediment to the employability of youth and also to the productivity of firms in developing countries and that apprenticeship training within firms is a promising avenue that utilizes the private sector to effectively deliver market-ready skills training to youth. “Youth unemployment is an acute market failure in Sub-Saharan Africa where youth account for 60 percent of the unemployed, and 72 percent of 15- to 24-year-olds live on less than US$2 a day,” he said.
He said, the National Apprenticeship Programme in Ghana will promote apprenticeship training to harness the knowledge and experience of firms and entrepreneurs to deliver market relevant skills to youth in a scalable and potentially cost-effective manner
Moomin Sead advised parents to help the executives assist the new masters with the needed resources and places to enable them harness on the potentials of the young ones for a better future. However, the regional chairman lamented over poor attendance of the young males not accepting to be trained into the job market but will rather prefer to involve themselves in social vices.
He therefore called on parents to help encourage the young ones to take advantage of the opportunities available to pursue their future careers saying white colour jobs in the country do not exist but rather entrepreneurship skills is the best solution to curb the unemployment rates of the country. He also called on government to inject some resources into the vocational skill training to help train more youth to become self independent.
Some apprentices, after the graduation ceremony, expressed gratitude to the management for the initiative saying the training has made them acquire handy work.
GNTDA was formed and registered in October 1979, set up in all the 16 official regions in Ghana including Tema as a separate region. The association has over 400 zonal branches all over Ghana.
