Implementers of Innovation in Non-Traditional Vocational Education and Skills Training (INVEST) Project on Monday 18th January 2022 held a day’s male engagement capacity building event for opinion leaders within Krofrom Sub Metro of the Kumasi Metropolis.
The training was organized by the local executives of World University Service of Canada (WUSC) in partnership with officials of Otumfuo Foundation, focused at empowering participants with knowledge on how they can help change the long standing public perception which frowns against women’s engagement in male dominated trades.
The program was a way of changing the status-quo.
It informed members of the training that women can take up any form of male related trade and should therefore not be hindered.
Target group for the training were traditional leaders, assemblymen, heads of the Islamic religion, reverend ministers among others.
It was a replication of earlier trainings held at Kwadaso, Suame, Old Tafo and Oforikrom Municipalities.
Personalities who turned up at the training as explained by the Project Officer for Kumasi Harriet Nyarko Anim were aimed at for the event so that through them, the agenda will be pushed at their respective fields of operation.
Harriet Nyarko Anim indicated in an interview with the media that per their research, nothing within the Akan tradition or religion bars a woman from engaging in a male profession.
She explained that bad public perception has hindered a lot of women from taking up skilled work that would have earned them great economic prosperity.
“ Women must know that they can do it and that nothing stops them from doing that.”, she charged.
Mr. Kwabena Owusu Ababio; a key facilitator for the training and an official of Otumfuo Foundation in an interview indicated that some women due to public perception discourage their fellows who make attempt to enroll unto male professions such as painting, carpentry, masonry, electrical among others.
He therefore admonished them to refrain from such acts by encouraging each other.
ABOUT PROJECT
INVEST project is aimed at empowering urban poor women with sustainable skills, reduce gender-specified barriers and increase the contribution of women to achieve economic growth in Ghana through a threefold multi-dimensional approach;
1. Strengthening existing apprenticeship programs and expanding opportunities for young girls to access formal and informal apprenticeship programs through institutions and the private sector;
2. Enticing private sector to support young women’s entry into the sector and building the business acumen of female and graduates and entrepreneurs and;
3. Outreach and sensitization at the community, industry, institutional and national levels around the inclusivity of women within male-dominated trade areas.
Source; www.leakynews.net
About Post Author
