Nana Prah Agyeinsam VI, Paramount chief of the Assin Kushia traditional area in the Central Region has advised the youth not to look down on vocational and technical training in pursuance of their education.
They should rather, embrace it and learn to develop requisite skills and talents that will make them self-employable in future.
Speaking at a ceremony to present a cheque for an amount of GH¢ 33, 750 to the authorities of the Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI) in Kumasi, on Friday, Nana Agyeinsam said acquisition of employable skills through vocational and technical training was necessary to reduce youth unemployment in the country.
The amount covers the first term school fees of 50 students of the school, who have been offered scholarships and are being sponsored by the Perseus Mining Company.
The scholarship scheme forms part of the company’s social responsibility programmes to provide technical and vocational skills to the youth in its catchment area.
The first batch of 40 students, who were under the scheme, had already completed their programmes in the school.
Nana Agyeinsam, who is also the Board Chairman of Perseus Mining, said the company was not sponsoring the students just because they wanted to employ some of them, but rather, to give them the skills that would make them self employable in future.
He said the intervention was to help assist brilliant but needy youth in the area to develop their skills to enable them to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country.
Nana Agyeinsam appealed to the beneficiaries to encourage their peers in the communities to embrace technical education to be able to fend for themselves in future.
Mr John Ankrah, Vice Principal, Academic of KTI, thanked the company for the support.
He said the beneficiaries of the scholarship scheme have comported themselves well, adding that, some have held responsible positions in the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) of the school.
Master Prince Adusei, one of the beneficiaries, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, thanked the company for the opportunity and appealed to it to extend the support to many other youth in the area.
