The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) has stepped up its skills development and job creation interventions under Chief Executive Officer Malik Basintale, with the Agency handing over training equipment to beneficiaries in the Western North Region.
The equipment, covering hairdressing, beauty care, tailoring, baking, auto mechanics, construction, electrical works and carpentry, was handed over by Mr Basintale to the Western North Regional Director for onward distribution to beneficiaries under the Agency’s various skills training modules.
The intervention is aimed at addressing a major challenge facing vocational training beneficiaries—access to the tools required to turn acquired skills into productive employment.
Mr Basintale said the Agency was committed to ensuring that beneficiaries did not only receive training but were also provided with the practical resources needed to establish sustainable livelihoods.
The latest intervention forms part of a broader expansion of YEA programmes since the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government assumed office in 2025.
Under Mr Basintale, the Agency has entered into partnerships aimed at creating large-scale employment opportunities for young people, including an agreement with G4S Security Services Ghana to recruit 6,000 youth into the private security sector.
The YEA has also partnered the Ghana National Fire Service to recruit 5,000 young people as Fire Assistants, while an agreement with the Islamic Education Unit provides for the recruitment of 3,000 Arabic teachers across the country.
The Agency has meanwhile expanded its skills training focus into emerging sectors, including a Waste-to-Wealth initiative targeting 2,000 young people for training in sustainable charcoal production from agricultural waste.
In the digital economy, YEA has partnered Ghana Digital Centres Limited under the Microsoft Skills for Jobs Microdegree Programme to train more than 2,000 young people in areas including cloud computing, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, data engineering, data analysis, graphic design and Microsoft Power Platform.
The programmes represent an attempt by the Agency to move beyond conventional youth employment placements towards skills development, private-sector recruitment and pathways into emerging areas of the economy.
The Western North equipment distribution adds a practical dimension to that strategy by giving trained beneficiaries the means to apply their skills and potentially establish their own income-generating ventures.
The equipment is expected to be distributed to beneficiaries across the region as they pursue their respective trades.
For the YEA, the emphasis is increasingly on linking training with tools, and tools with livelihoods, as the Agency seeks to improve the employment prospects of young people under the current administration.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
