He said establishing high quality career guidance and counselling programmes especially at the primary and junior high school levels would go a long way to bridge the gap between education, unemployment and underemployment in the country.

Mr Amegbor, who was speaking at the 5th Speech and Prize Giving Day and second graduation ceremony of the Sacred Heart Catholic Basic School at Yamoransa, said that would guarantee the nation of professionals who love their chosen careers and would seek to pursue it.

“The importance of establishing quality career guidance programme is particularly important if today’s learners are to successfully adapt to future labour market challenges” he said. Speaking on the theme, “ Empowering the youth through technical and vocational education”, Mr Amegbor said interest in humanity programmes in second cycle and tertiary institutions were very high yet not on a high demand in the job market.

He said the counselling programmes should be diverse to encourage the youth to explore the high demand of skilled and semi-skilled labour on the job market. Mr Amegbor urged parents of JHS graduates to encourage their children to take up careers in TVET to enable them acquire decent vocational skills that would help them gain employment after school for sustainable livelihood.

He urged parents not to impose careers on their children but rather assist them to identify their interests. Mr Amegbor also urged parents and students to seek career guidance and counseling before making a career decision and ensure that they develop their skills in their chosen careers.

 Mr Kenneth Kelly Essuman, the Municipal Chief Executive for Mfantsiman, said the Assembly has abolished the camping of BECE candidates and leavers jams which were organised for BECE graduates. The move, he said, was to curb teenage pregnancies which are on the ascendancy in the municipality.

Mr Essuman said teenage pregnancy and child marriages limited the career and vocational advancement of girls and expressed the commitment of the assembly to completely deal with the menace in the municipality.

He said the assembly was committed to providing scholarships to more than 100 students every year and urged the students to study hard to benefit from the scheme. Mr Kwaku Addo, the head teacher of the school, said the school by dint of hard work, continue to witness improvement in the performance of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

He said 45 students were presented for the 2017 BECE and expressed the hope that with the effort and commitment by all stakeholders, the school would achieve it target of 100 per cent. Mr Addo expressed worry that the increasing number of enrolment has resulted in overcrowded classrooms and appealed to all stakeholders to assist the school to construct a new JHS block as what they occupied was built for the primary.