Gold Fields Ghana supports technical training in local communities
Goldfields Ghana’s Damang Mine, through the Gold Fields Ghana Foundation, has presented work tools worth over GH¢15,000 to beneficiaries of the company’s Community Apprenticeship Programme (CAP).
The beneficiaries went taken through training to become auto mechanics, auto electricians, welders and sprayers in a special arrangement by the company and the local authorities.
The tools were meant to help them establish their own workshops and garages.
Basis of CAP
A Sustainable Development Manager at Gold Fields Ghana, Mr Robert Siaw, explained that although the company invested in formal education, it also realised that a good number of the youth dropped out after junior high school and are often unable to pursue further education.
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The apprenticeship programme was, thus, designed to provide an avenue for those who wished to learn employable skills, he added.
“Because of that, the company, together with community leaders, instituted CAP to address a real community need and open up opportunities for the youth.”
“The problem of unemployment and under development cannot be addressed by just focusing on the formal education sector. Vocational and technical training are critical for both local and national development and we are equipping the youth with these skills so that they can find employment for themselves, become employers as well, and help address societal challenges,” he added.
How CAP operates
Under the CAP, the beneficiaries are attached to experienced trade masters at Tarkwa and its environs for a four-year period.
Gold Fields Ghana bears the cost of the training and also provides transport for the beneficiaries to and from their various training locations. The company encourages beneficiaries to also undertake the National Vocational Training Institute Certification Examination and pays the examination fees for such beneficiaries.
The company said it had so far expended over GH¢450,000 on the programme.