GHANA JOBS AND SKILLS PROJECT HELD ON 8TH MAY, 2023

GHANA JOBS AND SKILLS PROJECT HELD ON 8TH MAY, 2023

GHANA JOBS AND SKILLS PROJECT

BACKGROUND OF PROJECT

Ghana Jobs and Skills Project is a project under the Youstart flagship programme of the Government of Ghana. The project is considered as one of the main forms of support for the government’s top priority agenda of upgrading skills among the country’s population, creating more and better quality jobs, and improving job outcomes for the youth. The World Bank is providing financing and technical support to the Government of Ghana (GoG) for the implementation of the Ghana Jobs and Skills Project. The Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) is implementing Component 2.1 of the Project which has the objective of providing Entrepreneurship Training and Competitive Start-up Grants to youth who have the potential to start a business. The project is geared to train 50,000+ youth.


TARGET BENEFICIARIES AND ELLIGIBILITY

  • 50% of the target Beneficiaries are women
  • Priority is given to Persons with Disability
  • Unemployed youth and existing MSME’s owned by youth between the ages of 18years to 40years

APPLICATION PROCESS

An online portal was opened in November 2022 for interested persons to apply for the project. We received 288,000 applications when the portal closed. After the application, those who scored the past mark were shortlisted. However, training has been broken down into phases due to the number of applicants. Breaking down training in phases also ensure that we limit the trainer-participant ratios to provide a quality learner experience.

TRAINING PROCESS

The training will be in 3 levels: Basic, Intermediate and Advanced.

Basic Level: All participants must go through Basic Training of 5 Days. They will need to participate fully and complete this level to progress to intermediate level.

Intermediate Level: This training will last for 10days. Participants will need to participate fully and complete intermediate to progress to advanced level training. Also, at this stage, existing youth businesses and unemployed youth with vocational skills will be eligible to apply for grant support. The grant support at this stage is highly competitive.

Advanced Level: This level will last for 15days. It will involve an incubation process to fine-tune business plans/idea, provide coaching and mentoring and access to network events/ trade shows.

ABOUT COMPETITIVE GRANTS

Grants will be in the form of cash grants for working, capital regulatory and formalization support, purchase of ICT business solutions and start-up Kits (Tools, Equipment and Technologies). NOT ALL PARTICIPANTS WILL RECEIVE THE GRANT. This is because it is a competitive grant and they have to go through a selection criterion to qualify.

EXPECTED IMPACTS

This programme is expected to culminate into job creation, job sustainability, business innovation and growth for enterprises owned by youth in the country, leading to a reduction of social vices due mainly to unemployment among the youth.