Asongtaba Cottage Industry the facilitators of the Trade and Vocation Module of the National Youth Employment have targeted Hundred Thousand Youth for training in the Dress Making and Hair Dressing Module of the Program by December 2012..

Speaking in an exclusive interview with this reporter, the Executive Director of the Company, Mr. Henry Kangah revealed that Asongtaba Cottage Industry trained and equipped over Seventeen Thousand Youth in dress making and Hair Dressing in the year 2011.

He said the Hundred Thousand Target for the year was to enable as many youth as possible gain their independence and also relieve government of the burden of haven to raise huge sums of money to pay allowances of beneficiaries monthly.

He indicated that apart from providing training and a work station, the beneficiaries are oriented on good customer service to make them competitive in the industry.

He said the sustainability of the National Youth Employment Program largely depends on modules the Dress Making and hair dressing because after beneficiaries are trained and given the prerequisite this tools needed to start work, government’s roles ends there.

According to him, hundred thousand would not be limited to the hair dressing and dress making module alone but would be expanded to areas such as art and craft and weaving.

Beneficiaries who produce items and do not have readily available market would be made to produce for the company and get paid for what they have produced.

“Asongtaba, which literally means “helping one another” in the Grune dialect is a foundation of self-help spirit and sense of motivation amongst members of the Asongtaba Company.”

The company seeks to provide local artistic technology with talent for the benefit of the youth, by providing them with, corporate training, organization reforms and restructuring.

According to him, the 21st Century thrives on empowering the youth through education and imbibing in the spirit of entrepreneurship. He said "when one person is trained and given the necessary working tools to operate, he or she ends up employing other people within a very short period of time and that is the most effective way of reducing unemployment to it lowest minimum".

Apart from the dress making and Hair dressing training, the company is also seeking to train people on the assembly of tricycle to serve communities that have poor access roads.

According to him, the Tricycle Training program would target rural folk and would help there earn income by transporting farmers from one community to the other at a fee.

Elsewhere, The National Coordinator of the National Youth Employment Program, Hon. Abuga Pele, commended the company for their commitment to giving the many unemployed youth training in various trades to enable them cope with life as far the economic aspect is concerned.

He said that the government is hundred percent committed to any initiative that would give people jobs to do and therefore his outfit would give Asongtable the needed support to be able to achieve the set target for the year.

He praised the company for their commitment towards the program and assured Ghanaians that the National Youth Employment Program which be renamed National Youth Employment Agency would always collaborate with the private sector and together tackle the unemployment menace that faces the Nation..

Repoter: Isaac Kyei andoh