MONROVIA – Assistant Labour Minister for Planning and Manpower Development, Emmanuel K. Barnes, is representing the Government of Liberia(GoL) through the Ministry of Labour at the Sub-Saharan Africa Skills and Apprenticeship Stakeholders Network 3rd Annual Regional Conference in Abuja, Nigeria.
The Conference is being held under the theme: ‘‘Scaling Apprenticeship for Decent Work in Quest for Quality Skills Development in the Informal Economy.’’
Speaking on behalf of the GoL, Assistant Minister Barnes stressed the need for workers in the informal sector of the African Economy to be seeing as important, as vast majority of the continent’s Labor Force comes from informal work.
He also emphasized the need for systematic Skills Development pattern through standardization of Technical Education Curriculum across the continent.
He said that he believes that by doing so, this will boast the possibility of Labour Migration, that would in return bring significant economic return to countries labourers who are migrated.
Minister Barnes was also served as a Panelist on the Sub Panel Discussion on Implementation, Financing and Coordination for Scaling Quality Apprenticeship.
During his participation, he argued that unless there is inter-Ministerial Coordination in tackling scales Development in Africa nations, there will be little to achieve in this regard.
He also registered the importance of government financial support to technical vocational education and private sector institutions desire to accept skilled youths in their employ as cadets, apprentice and interns.
Moderating that discussion was Ms. Christine Hoffmann, Head of the African Skills Hub at ILO Regional Office in Abijan.
Minister Barnes was again a Panelist on day two of the Conference. This time speaking on the Topic: Linking Apprenticeship with wage employment, self-employement, enterprise upgrading and business incubation.
The Assistant Labour Minister encouraged room for mentoring young people into business development, financial management, problem solving, networking and marketing opportunities.
He intimated that technical raw skills without these accompanying knowledge serve no purpose and leaves young Skills individuals into blurred vision in becoming entrepreneurs.
The are many sidelines discussions taking place as well, all aim at ensuring the necessary benefiting returns can come to the motherland.
