The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has graduated the first batch of apprentices who have successfully completed a 2-year apprenticeship course in Baking and Confectionary at Hohoe in the Volta Region.

The A2E Programme is an apprenticeship initiative of NBSSI aimed at equipping unemployed youth with employable skills through training under master craftsmen in various vocational skills ranging from Fashion Designing, Beauty Care, Masonry, Bakery, Carpentry, Electrical and Leatherworks among others.

After the training they are provided support to write the National Vocational and Technical Institute (NVTI) Examination.

A2E aims at strengthening and institutionalising the apprenticeship and technical training of the Board and also to scale up the Programme throughout the country over a two (2) year period.

It is also to equip the teeming unemployed youth with entrepreneurial and employable skills to enable them take advantage of employment opportunities with existing entrepreneurs, or set up businesses to create employment for others.

The NBSSI A2E Programme is an upgraded and job focused version of all the apprenticeship and technical training programmes undertaken by NBSSI in partnership with the District Assembly and Association of Small Scale Industries (ASSI).

According to Ms. Kosi Yankey, Executive Director of NBSSI, “This Programme is imperative for the nation considering the need for creation in the country. She promised to expand the Programme across the country.”

Currently, 876 apprentices are being trained underthe A2E Programme at no cost to beneficiaries. The beneficiaries comprise 630 females and 246 males.

In 2017, 950 persons benefited from the pilot A2E Programmes in two districts; Hohoe and Obuasi. That same year, 21,468 NBSSI participants received technical training, 1,142 persons sat for the NVTI exams and over 5,600 jobs were created through the support of NBSSI and its partners.