Opinions of Wednesday, 14 April 2021

Columnist: Solomon Bikmotey and Terry Afram-Kumi

He that has created more jobs, will create even more jobs - The Alan factor (i)

Minister of Trade, Alan Kyerematen Minister of Trade, Alan Kyerematen

The vision Alan Kyerematen has for the 1D1F’s in the second term of President Akufo Addo’s lead government, is to serve as practical experimentation for graduates who have just completed school.

The essence, of this vision, is to enable the graduates to implement the training skills or research idea or program to help with the industrialization agenda of the government.

This will create a lot of jobs for the graduates who finish tertiary education because there’s not only a platform ready to absorb the know-how they have learnt but also reward them by putting cash into their pockets.

The 1D1F’s is destined to be the center for a practical educational experience.

Due to the ups and downs in our education as a nation, we have over-emphasized memorization, instead of practical learning experiences coupled with critical thinking and experimentation.

The main goal of this practical initiative of absorbing graduates is to ensure that there’s a sustainable development of a knowledgeable, self-reliant, skilled, disciplined, and healthy population with the capacity to drive and sustain the socio-economic development of the nation.

The essence of the education and skills training is to make development and delivery in education and skills training more responsive to the labour market, increase access to post-basic education skill training and arrest the issue of school dropouts by developing programmes that will keep students in school until they complete relevant levels of education.

This will make learning a lifelong vocation and it will help narrow the gaps between young persons and their environment, provide apprenticeship training for out-of-school youths, to mention but a few.

Every Ghanaian child, is very much aware the curriculum of most educational institutions in Ghana are far from been practical.

The teaming youth need employable skills to be more productive in their areas of specialisation.

The 1D1F’s has also been identified as a powerful educational initiative to practically inform what is on paper.

Rural Enterprise Program (REP), under the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI), is implementing a policy for Ghanaian graduates to become shareholders in fifty-eight (58) factories of the 1D1F’s to be rolled out.
This is called the “Empowering Novel Agribusiness-Led Employment for the Youth” (Enable Youth).

This in effect, will give 2,900 direct jobs to the teeming youth and other thousands of indirect jobs through the value chain process.

The ultimate aim for this is to enable these graduates to manage these factories based on the combined unique set of skills that they possess.

The selected young graduates will be given the necessary support in the form of grants and loans to operationalize those factories.

This, in the long run, will help secure and accelerate the creation of thousands of jobs along the value chain, for which these factories will be the ultimate beneficiaries.

1D1F’s, are not only a hub of economic emancipation but also of value addition to the Ghanaian educational re-forms.

A hub of labour force for the industrial transformation agenda of the Ghanaian economy from been consumption-driven to production oriented.

The 1D1F’s is positioned to be a training ground for the teaming youth to help sustain and accelerate a more vibrant and effective economy.

The youth of Ghana, will be well-positioned to have an insight into what industrial career to pursue even before they set foot onto the campus of any tertiary institution.

The various universities will also create additional industrial courses that are tailor-made, to take advantage of the various job opportunities that the 1D1F’s present.

There is this very popular Chinese saying, "I hear I forget, I see I remember, I do I understand".

Our education will now travel beyond hearing and seeing to understanding and practical implementation.

The most interesting part of this development is that, unlike other educational attachments, this will be a transformative approach and make the graduates owners or shareholders in these factories that will spring up.

The selected graduates, will have a direct vested interest in these factories and thereby have the ultimate responsibility to ensure that that the best management practices and decisions are rightly implemented to sustain the factories.

In this way, the jobs of these graduates and those in the value chain will be secured.

This wonderful and thinkable initiative will lead to a revolution of a new breed of young, creative, dynamic, and energetic graduates who are trained and ready to operate these factories.

These graduates will be one of the pillars that will play a pivotal role in turning around the fortunes of the economy, especially in these trying times of COVID-19.

The problem of youth unemployment and underemployment is a real major developmental challenge. Employment creation is a major priority in every country's development agenda and it is the goal of every government to provide the youth with the necessary opportunities for employment and advancement.

The Enable Youth policy (which is one of the numerous policies), will therefore seek to build the capacity of the youth to discover wealth-creation opportunities in their own backyards and environment, enabling them to have access to reliable and adequate labour market information, creating opportunities for young people to take advantage of available jobs, training and preparation of the youth for the global market and still naming.

Apart from the 1D1F’s serving as a breeding ground for rapid job creation, it is also a platform that will serve as an arena of skills development, a field of experimental knowledge acquisition, and a vibrant employable human resource hub for the transformation of our Ghanaian economy.

This alone has made me believe the slogan of one of the most renowned ministers of our time, “Jobs for the people, Cash for the people”.
This is not just a saying, not only a philosophy but also a well-endowed vision to eradicate poverty through the transformation of a knowledge-based education to an applicable and productive one.

Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen has proven beyond reasonable doubt, that he is capable of giving hope to the vibrant employable youth of our motherland.
He has demonstrated to be a man of his words. A true action man.

Alan is Jobs...!
Alan is Industrialization...!
Alan is Factories...!
Alan is Trade...!