The Youth Inclusive Entrepreneurial Development Initiative for Employment (YIEDIE) project has targeted thousands of persons with disabilities for training to take up employment in the construction sector.
This forms part of a big project to train at least 23,700 youths nationwide for the sector.
To this end, a workshop to discuss how to include and possibly attract persons with disabilities to be equipped with the skills to operate in the sector to improve their economic wellbeing was held in Accra recently.
The workshop was organized by YIEDIE, a five year project aimed at creating opportunities in Ghana’s construction sector for economically disadvantaged youth. It is being implemented Global Communities in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation.
Participants of the forum included Ghana Blind Union, Ghana National Association of Deaf, Ghana Association of Persons with Albinism, Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled, Inclusion Ghana, Mental Health Society of Ghana, Share Care Ghana and the Council on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET).
Project Director of YIEDIE, Vera Kafui Mills-Odoi said in spite of the huge potential of the construction sector, persons with disabilities’ participation in the sector remained low.
The 2010 Ghana Population Census Report indicates that 4 per cent of youth aged 15-24 have some form of disability.
“YIEDIE project recognizing this problem seeks to explore the inclusion of PWDs into the project to attract, recruit, retain and grow PWDs in the construction sector,” she said.
The construction sector, she said was capable of offering employment opportunities to the youth as stated by the World Bank report which suggested that more than 700,000 jobs would be created by the sector from 2015 to 2020.
Although the sector could enhance economic development, the youth, specifically persons with disabilities, she noted lack the required skills and knowledge to build a career.
Vera Mills-Odoi indicated that YIEDIE was liaising with Ministries of Employment and Labour Relations and of Gender and Social Protection to prepare a legislative instrument that could facilitate the training of young and vulnerable people between 17 and 24 to man the construction sector.
She said the instrument would determine the opportunities and employment which would be available to young persons with disabilities and their scope of operation.
“In the absence of specific policies promoting participation in the sector, we can leverage existing policies in the Disability Act of 2006 to create opportunities for persons with disability in the construction sector,” she added.