The second- segment of the Four Regional Job Fairs dubbed the “Ghana Job Fair Green Edition” organized concurrently through a collaboration of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) with their social and development partners came to its climax on Tuesday 27th September 2022 in Kumasi and Tamale respectively. The previous Job Fairs were held in Accra and Sunyani in mid-September and the essence according to the organisers was to allow for inclusivity and wider participation across the country instead of having job seekers travel far away from their homes to one location.
The YEA came in to the Ghana Job Fair for the first time as a partner and co-funder of the four Regional events in line with its mandate of creating and facilitating job placement for the unemployed youth. Addressing the participants at the closing ceremony in Tamale, the Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Hon Bright Wereko Brobbey, assured that the Ministry was positioned to create the enabling environment for all relevant stakeholders to foster linkages and build synergies for job creation.
He explained that the establishment of the National Employment Coordinating Committee (NECC) would play a role in bringing together key stakeholders in the employment generation sectors as well as social and development partners to deliberate on employment creation programmes and projects. The Minister stated that the inception of the Ghana Job Fairs in 2018, had placed a significant number of job seekers in gainful employment. He hinted of more Job Fairs through the existing collaborations and the assured of government commitment to do more towards national development. On the Green Edition of the Ghana Job Fair, he explained that it was in fulfilment of "Ghana's commitment and obligation to the tenets of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the National Green Jobs Strategy that places responsibility on government to create sustainable jobs that are decent and green".
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Operations at the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) Alhaji Bashiru Ibrahim, reiterated the continuous collaboration between the Agency and the development partners to promote programmes for jobs creation and employment opportunities for the youth. He argued that the current job market was fluid ,and for that matter, academic laurels alone could not be enough to secure a job placement. He therefore underscored the need for skills acquisition to meet the current trend of labour and industry demands. He posed a rhetoric question as to which job applicant stood the chance of landing a vacant slot requiring a tertiary education graduate with a degree in economics.
He opined that obviously the employer would look beyond the degree and pick the one among the horde of degree holders with the added skills and the ability to excel at the interview session. He therefore advised the participants to take the Job Fair and training programmes seriously and market themselves well to the businesses and companies that had declared vacancies.
He explained further that such employment opportunities might not come with job experience but the ability to sell oneself to the prospective employer.