Koforidua, Jan.14, GNA- The Minister for Manpower and Employment, Mr Yaw Barimah, has said that the government was pursuing policies to create job openings for the youth in the country.

He stressed the government's commitment to providing productive and sustainable employment avenues and called on the youth to acquire skills from the Skills Training Education Programme (STEP).

Mr Barimah who was speaking to newsmen at Koforidua on Tuesday, noted that most of the youth who were registered for employment some time ago had "no requisite skills to be absorbed in any meaningful jobs".

He explained that it was the wish of the government to deal with such lapses that the Ministry of Manpower and Employment had adopted the STEP to equip the youth with the necessary skills.

The Minister said through the STEP, the Ministry had trained about 10,000 youths, who registered in employable skills such as masonry, carpentry, dressmaking and other trades.

Some of the trainees, he said, were given working capital to start their own enterprises while others were also absorbed into the various President's Special Initiative (PSI) industries.

Mr Barimah who is also the MP for Koforidua, debunked allegations that the unemployed registration exercise was meant to score political points for the NPP, adding that the exercise had been beneficial in the development of human resource base and helped to prompt the Ministry to pay more attention towards providing the youth with vocational and technical education.

He said "if it were for mere political points, those registered would have been employed by the state and paid with the tax-payer's money without rendering any meaningful service towards the development of the economy", he said.