Four hundred master craftsmen and women have undergone a four-day intensive training to sharpen their skills in their areas of trade.

The training, sponsored by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Foundation in collaboration with Aseda Foundation and the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI), took the trade masters through areas in carpentry, motor vehicle repairs, decoration, entrepreneurship, health and safety, and code of ethics.

At the ceremony on Friday to present certificates, the Executive Director of GNPC Foundation, Dr. Dominic Eduah, said he believed the training had set the trade masters on the path of progress and that they would use the new concepts in business to improve their work.

The foundation, he explained, was desirous of promoting entrepreneurship and work ethics for business growth and customer satisfaction.

He said the training was part of the Foundation’s economic-empowerment initiatives and, therefore, urged the beneficiaries to apply the knowledge acquired to distinguish themselves in their areas of trade.

“We hope you will multiply the ideas you have acquired so that others will also benefit from the opportunity of economic empowerment. Indeed, Aseda Foundation has not disappointed us in our programme to offer skills training to Ghanaians. You must be proud beneficiaries of the oil find,” Dr. Eduah said.

“Our dream is to ensure that we use the resources to empower and educate people while we offer scholarships. Be ambassadors for the GNPC Foundation,” he added.

A Principal Economic Planning Officer, Jacob Ntiamoah, applauded the participants and mentioned that the training was part of programmes to offer education to the private sector to improve the lives of Ghanaians and also create jobs and wealth.

He told the participants that the declaration of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’was aimed at empowering Ghanaians from all classes of society to fully tap their potential and make the economy resilient so that the generations unborn would not come and suffer.

The Commissioner for Testing at NVTI, John Ocran, reiterated that skills training was not for the “dumb” and, therefore, urged the public to do away with such a wrong perception.

He said, “Research rather suggests the opposite as one must be very sharp-minded to learn a skill.”

Mr. Ocran expressed the hope that the skills training would improve the performance of the trade masters.