Employability Skills Training Organised For Persons With Disabilities
An international Non-Governmental Organisation, Osei Baako Foundation (OBF) in partnership with Center for Employment of Persons with Disabilities (CEPD) and Extra Helping Hand Foundation (EHHF) has organised an employability skills training workshop to enhance the capacities of persons with disabilities.
The workshop was organised in celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
On Monday, December 5, 2022, 35 graduates with physical, visual, hearing and mental health disabilities from the Volta, Upper East, Northern, Oti, Bono East, Greater Accra and Central regions, attended the workshop in Accra.
The training included confidence-building skills and problem-solving strategies, proposal writing and reporting skills.
It also promoted the exchange of experience in the professional rehabilitation of persons with disabilities and the creation of inclusive environment that would allow everyone to realise their potential by “leaving no one behind”.
The beneficiaries were empowered with skills to safely and efficiently operate in the mining industry with some of the biggest employers across the country, including AngloGold Ashanti.
The training became necessary as EHHF and CEPD have been reached an agreement with some mining companies in the country to employ persons with disabilities.
CEPD and EHHF have been working hard to look for employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.
They are currently partnering other stakeholders to come up with a legislation that would compel employers to reserve a certain quota of employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.
The Executive Director of CEPD, Mr. Alexander Tetteh urged the participants to take the lessons seriously.
He intimated that the cooperate world had become very competitive and so there was a need for persons with disabilities to upscale themselves to be employable and to be able to prove themselves when employed.
The Founder and Managing Director of OBF, Jessica Quelennec acknowledged that people with disabilities often experienced a higher rate of unemployment than those without disabilities, due to widespread misconceptions among employers and the general public about the many skills of people with disabilities.
She disclosed that, OBF aimed at highlighting the importance of integrating people with disabilities into the world of work and into society as a whole, and not to see making life better for them as an act of charity.
Miss Jessica Quelennec stressed the need to use education to break the barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating in society on an equal basis.
In a speech read on her behalf, the Executive Secretary of the National Council on Persons with Disability, Lawyer Esther Gyamfi also encouraged the participants to make good use of the knowledge acquired.
