The Ghanaian –German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration of the GIZ has challenged the various stakeholders within the jobs creation space in Ghana, to make more targeted investments to help reduce the rate of unemployment in the country.
The call was made at the media lunch of the 2019 Ghana Job Fair held in Accra.
Speaking to Citi Business News about the state of employment in Ghana, Regional Advisor for Ghana and Nigeria, for the Program Migration for Development at the Ghanaian–German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration Benjamin Woesten said, there is an urgent need to address Ghana’s skills mismatch gap between academia and industry.
“What we can speak about is that yes we see the skills mismatch being complained about by the corporate world and there’s definitely a lot that can be done to improve the situation. What we need to do is to get the right people talking and to get everybody to invest a little bit more. That is true for the job seekers, the corporate world, educational institutions and also for actors like development corporations like GIZ.”
As at 2018, the unemployment rate in Ghana as a percentage of the total labour force according to statistics from the World Bank, stood at 6.7 percent.
Even though government is putting in place programs like the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP), Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) and One District One Factory policy among others, the unemployment situation has recently been worsened by the layoffs on the Banking sector.
Mr. Woesten is confident the 2019 Ghana Job Fair will not just bring prospective employers and job seekers together to help solve a part of the unemployment problem, it will help many in securing their livelihoods.
He added that going forward job seekers must put in effort to become more flexible while developing their soft skills in addition to their practical skills.
“When it comes to the skills mismatch it does not only pertain to the hard skills. It also applies to the mindset of the people, to develop more long term career prospects for themselves and to exhibit some entrepreneurial attitude even as employees,” he stressed.
The 2019 Ghana Job Fair, which is scheduled to come off on May 23rd at the Fantasy Dome, Trade Fair Center in Accra is being organized by the Ghanaian –German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration in partnership with the Ministry for Employment and Labour Relations (MELR).
