The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), a girl focused organisation, has reiterated its commitment to empowering young girls to bridge the female gap in the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
That, it said, would also help contribute to reduce the rate of unemployment and poverty and enable vulnerable young girls live dignified lives.
Mr Christian Zico Agbebo, the Programmes Manager, CAMFED, made this disclosure when 91 young girls successfully graduated from the Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU) in the Upper East Region after an eight-week intensive practical training on TVET courses.
The initiative was spearheaded by CAMFED in partnership with BTU and sponsored under the Mastercard Foundation Young Africa Works programme.
It was aimed at equipping the young girls with practical knowledge and skills on various TVET fields to contribute to reduce youth unemployment and poverty.
They were trained in bricklaying and tiling, computer graphics and photography, hardware and networking, web development, automotive engineering, agriculture technology, building and construction and electricals.
It was the third course in a series after 137 and 302 young girls were successfully trained early in the year.
Mr Agbebo explained that apart from the fact that TVET was a male-dominated area which needed to be bridged, many young girls found it difficult to secure decent jobs due to lack of required skills.
He said the move was part of contributing to providing TVET skills to about 30 million young girls across Africa, to secure dignified livelihood and help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals particularly goal four.
“CAMFED is committed to helping the young girls transition into the field of work to be able to start their businesses and that is the reason we have invested so much in them, in their training and provision of their requisite start-up kits to enable them to start and run successful businesses in their communities,” he said.
He urged the beneficiaries to apply the knowledge acquired and the support to improve the livelihoods of their families and their communities.
The beneficiaries expressed gratitude to CAMFED and its partners for providing skills that would enable them, especially those who did not have formal education, to acquire livelihood skills to venture into meaningful economic activities.
Ms Grace Lovenia, a beneficiary who pursued computer hardware and networking noted that the training had helped to demystify the notion that TVET courses were meant for only men and underscored the need for more girls to pursue TVET.
