The European Union (EU) has announced a €7 million support for the promotion of technical and vocational education training in the country.

Mr. William Hanna, its Ambassador to Ghana, said it was part of its contribution to efforts at strengthening the development of the private sector to transform the lives of the people.

He was speaking at the official launch of phase three of the Ghana Skills Development Initiative (GSDI) in Kumasi.

GSDI is a project assisted by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and seeks to improve the quality of the traditional apprentice system in the informal sector.

Co-funded by the EU, it is being implemented by the German Development Agency – GIZ in collaboration with the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET).

It has been working in five trade areas - electronics, garment, welding, cosmetology and auto-mechanics.

Ambassador Hanna underlined the importance of skills development to the nation’s economy and urged the youth to take to vocational and technical training to become economically self-supporting.

He noted that the youth had enormous potential to sustain the economy on the path of progress.

Mr. Christopher Retzlaff, the German Ambassador in Accra, said technical and vocational education training (TVET) was the way forward to tame Ghana’s rising unemployment.

His country has the second lowest youth unemployment rate in the EU (7.2 percent) and this was achieved largely because of the priority put on vocational training.

He said it was on the basis of this that TVET has become a major focus of the Ghana-German development cooperation.

Mr. Sylvester Deh, Executive Director of COTVET, said 331 people were trained under the project and that had brought added value to the workforce.

He urged the government to pay more attention to vocational and technical education.