There is no doubt that the youth of any country deserve as their basic human right, the opportunity to work and to contribute to the development of their country.  The objective of providing employment for the youth of Ghana, both to enable them support the national effort, as well as to plan for their own future security, has always remained a central aspect of my government’s development agenda.  We also recognize in this, the need to harness the innate talents and energies of the youth to further enhance the achievement of these important goals, hence my government’s emphasis on human resource development as a major pillar in our growth and accelerated development agenda.  We remain steadfast in our commitment to deliver in these areas.

When we undertook a registration exercise of unemployed youth in 2001, it was to give us a good understanding of the nature and scope of the unemployment situation among the youth so as to be able to deal with it very effectively.  From this position, we undertook the Skills Training and Employment Placement Programme as a start, to give readily employable skills to our youth and also to provide them with employment opportunities.  The success of this programme can be found in many young men and women who have gone on to start small businesses for themselves while others have been employed by various established organizations.

In the second term of my administration, we find it imperative to continue the improvement of these measures, thus our desire to implement a more comprehensive and integrated system of engaging the attention of the youth positively.  While the introduction of the Technical, Vocation and Education Testing Policy (TVET) will help to sharpen the technical and vocational skills of our young men and women and make them more competitive and therefore supports the human resource development programme, we also desire that they be placed in employment opportunities that are productive and rewarding.

The Ghana Youth Job Corps Programme or Youth Employment Programme, as it is popularly known, is an enhanced programme that has built on the experiences of our earlier initiatives and is designed to provide more employment opportunities for the youth.  The programme is also rooted in helping to achieve the Millenium Development Goals and thus places emphasis on poverty reduction, improved health service delivery, access to education and good governance.

I wish to draw the attention of all Ghanaians to the fact that my government has placed employment high on our national development agenda and this is why employment has been mainstreamed in the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy.  This youth employment initiative is therefore simply one aspect of achieving our larger employment objective.  The adoption and implementation of a National Employment Policy will address the sustainability of employment in Ghana.  This government will not relent in its efforts to ensure that Ghanaians have the opportunity to work, to earn incomes and to support the development of their nation.  Such is a right that we uphold and will work hard to defend.

... His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor