The Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment (MMDE) is to grant 2.5 million cedis to each person who gets training from the Skills Training Employment Placement (STEP) programme to start business.
The Deputy Minister of Manpower Development and Employment, Dr. Mrs Angela Ofori-Atta, said in a speech read for her at a graduation ceremony of garment construction trainees at the Akyem Awisa Youth Training Centre on Friday.
Ten young women undertook a twelve-month course in garment production at the centre under the joint sponsorship of the Presbyterian Youth Self-help programme (PYSHP) and the Ministry.
Mrs Ofori-Atta said studies conducted by the Ministry showed that most young people had learnt various vocations but due to lack of capital to start work with, they were unemployed.
She urged people to disregard the wrong notion that vocational training is for school dropouts and urged parents to enrol their children at those centres to enable them to acquire employable.
Chairman of the Management Committee of the Awisa Youth Training Centre, Mr Michael Ofosu Yeboah, in a welcoming address, said the centre was set up in 2000 to provide training in carpentry, masonry, textile, garment production and food processing.
He said last year, the centre went into partnership with the Ministry to train the unemployed.
Mr Yeboah said those trained were taken through HIV/AIDS counselling as an integral part of their training and expressed the hope that those who were able to go through the programme successfully could make it in life.