14,000 Youths Engaged For Teaching Jobs

By William Yaw Owusu

Saturday, 02 September 2006
THE government’s programme for youth employment gets under way in earnest with the recruitment of thousands of young persons to fill vacancies in the education and health services.

Some 14,000 youth are to be engaged to take up appointments as pupil teachers in basic schools throughout the country with effect from the 2006/2007 academic year which begins later this month.

Another 10,500 are to be selected and trained as auxiliary nursing assistants.

Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Abubakar Saddique Boniface, announced this at the closing of the vacation Employment Prog-ramme for students in Accra on Thursday.

A total of 517 students from tertiary and second cycle institutions were engaged by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) between July and August under the National Youth Employment Programme to help detect "ghost" names on the government’s payroll.

Alhaji Saddique said the ministry had assisted more than 5,000 post National Service Personnel under the placement system of the youth programme to get contracts at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the VAT Service while 369 are to be sent to CAGD.

He said the government will soon take delivery of between 5,000 and 8,000 tricycles to be distributed to the districts under the District Assemblies Sanitation Programme.

The cycle, to be fitted with receptacles for refuse collection will be assigned to 50 youth in each district.

"I would like to use this medium to call on the youth to take advantage of the opportunities being offered by government to acquire skills and be able to set up their own business," he added.