Accra-Ghana, Nov. 9, GNA – Mr Henry Antwi, a Mining Engineer, has urged the Ghana Mineworkers Union (GMWU) to develop a collaborative effort, which brought employers, unions, and government officials together to find solutions to skills and workforce challenges.
He called on the Union to provide independent advice on current, emerging, and future workforce, skills, and training needs, and build and maintain broad, deep, and ongoing industry connections to understand the experiences and needs of employers.
Mr Antwi made the call at the first edition of the national youth conference of the Ghana Mineworkers Union (GMWU) in Accra, on the theme: “Building Resilience in a Rapidly Changing World of Work: The Role of Young Workers.”
“With the right enablers and training, the youth will drive sustainable mining that will contribute significantly to socio-economic development,” Mr Antwi added.
Mr Antwi called on government and international communities to provide investments in the skills of the future, including education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
He advised the youth to adjust to changing conditions, analyse, evaluate, and innovate, challenge the status quo, and embrace reskilling and upskilling.
Mr Antwi said the youth represented nearly 60 per cent of the population in least developed countries, and that they played a vital role in addressing poverty and underdevelopment.
He added that, “yet, over 67 million young people have limited opportunities, and that more than 40 per cent of Africa’s population is between 15 – 24 years.”
The Mining Engineer said the sector was a powerhouse which contributed to the economy, created jobs, and impacted daily lives.
He said quite a few countries were taking initiatives to ensure that the youths were well positioned to be able to compete in the world of work.
He encouraged the government and various relevant stakeholders to do more in the form of youth engagement and development to enable them to sharpen their skills for growth of the economy.
He said currently, the global challenges affecting the mining sector particularly, was the increment in fuel prices and mines getting deeper, hence there was the need for the industry to move faster in terms of coming up with business improvement initiatives to reduce these costs.
“So, we see around the world that there is automation, artificial intelligence, robotics and others to ensure that the industry survives under the current economic conditions,” he added.
Mr Abdul-Moomin Gbana, General-Secretary, GMWU, said due to the increasing rate of youth unemployment globally, they youth should be involved in decision making.
He said the world of work had transformed tremendously, stating that there were newer forms of employment, casualisation, fixed term contracts, temporary employment, among others.
“The young people are the most affected and will be the most affected if this narrative continues, and so the question is, what do they need to do or the union be doing,” he added.
Mr Gbana said artificial intelligence, automation, robotisation, digitalisation were the new “flavours” in the form of work orchestrated by global capital to ensure that they returned a lot more margins in terms of profit at the expense of “ordinary” workers.
“With the introduction of robots, if they take the workplace, what becomes of the fate of the young people, and what should be done to ensure that when robots take away our jobs, we do not remain jobless,” he added.
Mr Gbana said the youth in the mining sector and by extension in the Ghanaian labour market needed to be conscientised on the current state of the world of work.
He advised the young people to avail and position themselves for training in the newer developments and innovations making ways to the labour market.
