Nation Builders Corps To Employ 100,000 Graduates

Government has announced that it will introduce a Nation Builders Corps program next year to tackle graduate unemployment in the country.

The program which is government’s major initiative next year will provide employment for 100,000 graduates in the country.

This was revealed by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, on Wednesday, during the presentation of the 2018 budget in Parliament.

Available data from the Institute of Statistics, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) in March 2017, revealed that only 10 percent of graduates find jobs after their national service and it can take up to 10 years for a large number of graduates to secure employment.

The Finance Minister in analyzing the statistics said it is as a result of varied challenges that ranges from the lack of employable skills, unavailability of funding capital for entrepreneurship, as well as low capacity of industry to absorb the huge numbers.

He therefore called for a reverse in the trend and further stated that every district on average should be able to provide jobs for 462 graduates when the program is rolled out next year.

“The focus of the initiative will be solving public service delivery in health, education, agriculture, sanitation and drive revenue mobilization and collection”, Mr. Ofori Atta said.

He stressed that the program would provide employment to unemployed graduates, improve skills and employability, improve public service delivery, and improve government revenue mobilization.

According to him, graduates will be trained under the Nation Builders Corps program, equipped with the necessary work tools and deployed around the country.

“They would be engaged as  graduate teachers in a Teach Ghana program focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Technology and Mathematics (STEM) and other relevant subjects in primary and secondary schools across the country; Sanitation Inspectors in a Clean Ghana program focused on enforcing sanitation laws and inspection to ensure clean communities, Trained nurses and other healthcare workers in a Heal Ghana program that will provide healthcare delivery to deprived and rural communities across Ghana, and trained agricultural extension and other allied workers in a “Feed Ghana” program that will provide extensive support to farmers along the agriculture value chains”, he stressed.

Source: Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum/ thePublisher