Ms. Akua Sena Dansua, the Minister for Women and Children's Affairs on Monday stressed the need for women to be educated and gainfully employed to enable her participate in decision-making at all any levels.
In a speech read on her behalf at the presentation of equipment and graduation of Entrepreneurship Skills Training (EST) participants, Ms. Dansua said the initiative would help contribute significantly to the realization of the mandate of her ministry "to enhance employment opportunities and social status of females for a sustainable livelihood".
The programme was organized by the Vocational Training for Females (VTF) to donate equipment to seventy-six women artisans who had completed vocational and apprenticeship training and the graduation of forty women who had gone through five months training in EST.
She said the strategic move would complement government's efforts at addressing the challenges that the youth had to contend with including unemployment and streetism.
Ms. Dansua advised the women to join trade associations to enable them benefit from further training to grow their business.
Ms. Linda Agyei, Acting Director of VTF said nations that had focused on Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) were showing evidence of its benefits as a means of generating employment, reducing poverty and the long-term effect of advancing development.
Ms Agyei said prospective entrepreneurs faced lots of challenges like lack of appropriate equipment, lack of funding to make micro business thrive.
The VTF donated equipment worth GHc40, 000 which included sterilizing, manicure and pedicure machines; sowing, knitting and over lock machines, spraying machines, oven, cylinders and equipments for batik, tie and dye for hair dressers, dress makers, auto sprayers, caterers and batik, tie and dye makers respectively to start and maintain their businesses.
Certificates were awarded to graduants who had already received their equipment and had gone through the EST course, which had been facilitated by the VTF.
They were taken through courses like customer care, communication, time management, creativity, quality control, production planning, costing and pricing, records keeping, market survey.
The VTF is a Non Governmental Organisation which has response to high unemployment amongst the youth especially females been providing apprenticeship training with the goal to enhance employment opportunities and social status of females for a sustainable livelihood.