Hyundai to set up technical training centre in Ghana

Hyundai Motor Company, in collaboration with Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and Plan Korea, will launch a project to help youth in under-developed areas support themselves by setting up technical training centre for automobile repair in several African nations. Starting with Ghana, Hyundai will build automobile repair training schools in Africa and Asia in a continuous cycle of construction. KOICA was founded as a government agency in 1991 to maximize the effectiveness of Korea’s grant aid programs for developing countries by implementing the government’s grant aid and technical cooperation program. The focus has now broadened to promoting sustainable development, strengthening partnerships with developing partners, and enhancing the local ownership of beneficiaries; while Plan is an international child-centred community development organization that works for human development and focuses on promoting the rights of children. Plan’s vision is a world in which all children realize their potential in societies that respect human rights and dignity. The repair training school in Koforidua, Ghana, called Hyundai-KOICA Dream Centre, will open in September 2012 with a three-year program, admitting about 300 students. Hyundai will support the establishment of the school, from paying teachers to developing curriculum. Graduates with good school records will be offered jobs at Hyundai Service Centres. Statistics available from the Ghana Statistics Service 2006 Report indicate that about 250,000 young people enter the labour market annually; they range from university graduates to junior high dropouts. Only 2pc, or fewer than 5,000 Ghanaian youth, secure traditional employment. The rest are left to unemployment or unstable employment. The cause of high unemployment among youth is the lack of employable skills needed by the job market. Most educational training curricula are not valued by the current job market. As such, the Hyundai-KOICA project has been designed to give youth employable skills. The project’s support programs and goals are setting up a technical training center and supporting equipment for automobile repair training, recruiting and educating students to be auto mechanics, enhancing the skills of existing auto mechanics, creating skilled and literate mechanics, enabling self-reliant poverty reduction through youth empowerment and lastly, strengthening Hyundai/Korean and Ghanaian technical and cultural cooperation through Hyundai’s social contribution expertise. The ceremony for the opening of the auto repair training school in Ghana was held at GRATIS Foundation premises, Koforidua. GRATIS Foundation evolved out of the Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Service (GRATIS) Project, which was established by the government of Ghana in 1987 and is mandated to promote small scale industrialization in Ghana. The dignitaries who attended the ceremony were Ambassador of Korea – H.E Kyun Jea-Min, the Eastern Regional Minister – Dr. Kwasi Akyem Appiah-Kubi, Resident Representative of KOICA – Kim So Young, African Regional Headquarters Representative of Hyundai Motor company – Lee Jang Ho, Executive director of GRATIS – Emmunuel Asiedu, National director of Plan Korea – Lee Sang Joo and country director of Plan Ghana – Prem Shukla.