A delegation from Kenya was in the country from 27 – 28 June 2018 as part of a two-day visit to understudy the operations of Ghana’s National Service Scheme (NSS) with the hope of learning new ways of improving youth service in their country.
The five-member delegation, led by the Administration Secretary at the State Department for Post Training and Skills Development, an agency under the Ministry of Education in Kenya, Ms. Lucy Mulili, met the top Management of the NSS, led by its Deputy Executive Director (Finance and Administration), Dr Gifty Oware-Aboagye, at the start of the tour.

Discussions between the two parties centred primarily on youth service policies, strategic modules, and challenges in implementing the policies.

They discussed the role of the government in tackling youth unemployment. Both parties agreed that the comprehensive approach to addressing the concerns of the youth required modules that are integrated with the development of skills that are linked to industry.

They also shared ideas and expertise on the best way forward.

On the first day of the visit, the team were given a brief about the mandate, activities and operations of the NSS.

The team, on the second day of the visit was taken on a tour to some project sites of the NSS such as the Papao Demonstrations Farm and the Nungua Farms where they witnessed the many agriculture projects the NSS was undertaking such as poultry, rabbitry, piggery, aquaculture.

They also, had the opportunity to interact with National Service Personnel who shared their experiences.


 


“I am very impressed with the self-supporting programmes of the service in terms of their agricultural sector, catering services, bottled water production as well as manufacturing and fabrication modules that generate income for the Scheme,” Ms Mulili stated.


Explaining the operations of the Department of Post Training and Skills Development in Kenya, Ms Mulili said her country was restructuring its youth service programmes to match with the need of the times and thus, needed fresh ideas to comprehensively address it.


She, however, called for collective and integrated solutions to address the needs of the youth since they form a majority of Africa’s population.

Dr Oware-Aboagye highlighted on the effort by the government aimed at curbing the issue of unemployment in the country. She mentioned specifically, the Nation Builders Corps Programme (NABCO), Youth Employment Agency (YEA), the Youth Enterprise Support (YES) and the establishment of the National Youth Authority (NYA) to strategically address such needs.


Source: ClassFMonline.com