Government has indicated that it is looking at employing five thousand more youth in the Ashanti region, into the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) in the coming months.

The youth employment vehicle is targeting to engage a hundred thousand young unemployed people across the country in a variety of models including youth in community health; youth in prisons; youth in community policing; youth in sanitation and environmental protection.

The Youth Enterprise Agency Tuesday held a durbar for all beneficiaries of the programme in the Ashanti region at the Ahinsan Youth Centre in Kumasi.

The maiden event saw over thousand beneficiaries and their coordinators from across the region in attendance.

Speaking to Ultimate News’ Ivan Heathcote – Fumador on the sidelines of the durbar, the Deputy Ashanti regional minister, Andy Osei Okrah indicated that the region has only employed a little over 8 thousand beneficiaries out of the 12 thousand vacancies allotted to the region.

“In the case of the Ashanti region, we have been allotted over 12 thousand. Out of that, from the statistics we have from all the models, we have eight thousand one hundred and fifty two (8,152) leaving about five thousand (5000) for them to employ in order to get to the twelve thousand,”

Mr Andy Okrah further advised the beneficiaries to adopt a diligent attitude towards work to merit recommendations into permanent jobs that will be generated by President John Dramani Mahama.

Mr Okrah also assured the beneficiaries that processes were far advanced to pay off all unpaid allowances in models whose monthly stipends were in arrears.

Sharing their experiences under the Employment Modules, a beneficiary under the youth in community nursing told Ultimate News, “we assist the nurses and one of our core duties is in weighing babies. I have always wanted to be a nurse but I couldn’t pass some subjects in the Senior high school. But they have assured us after two years, we can be aided into a nursing training college with our experience,”

Mohammed Ish Deen Ahmed Baba Luai, a community teaching assistant indicated, “We help teachers in schools to teach and train the children. I have been a teacher but I felt I could join the scheme. Although what we receive is just a token, we appreciate it.”

A development planning graduate of the University of Development Studies intimated that he joined the Environmental Protection Officer module as a stepping stone to higher career goals. His module goes around institutions educating and ensuring compliance with environmental protection regulations.