Vodafone Ghana has organised a virtual skills fair to equip 4,000 youth with skills and build their capacity in varied career paths to enable them to choose the right and suitable careers.
The fair provided an avenue for broadcasters, footballers, Information Technology Engineers and Business Managers among others, to enlighten participants on Journalism, Information Technology, Business Management, and football among others.
Participants also learnt how to raise capital, start a business, manage risks, and generate profit.
Patricia Obo-Nai, the chief executive officer of Vodafone Ghana, said the telecom company had committed to using its resources, expertise and technology to contribute significantly to developing the country’s human capital, especially as a purpose-led organisation.
She said while there were concerns about youth unemployment in the country, some organisations like Vodafone Ghana still had vacancies because they could not find the skills they needed in the digital and technological space to fit into those roles.
Reiterating that the leading driver of unemployment was a growing skills gap amongst young people, she said it was, therefore, prudent to help the youth to either move forward in their career paths, change it for the better or straighten their paths.
Obo-Nai said Vodafone Ghana had over the years been investing in quite a number of initiatives under the broad objective of developing skills programme such as the “Our Discover program” – a two-year management trainee opportunity for graduates who had completed their National Service and giving them opportunities to work with Vodafone.
Others were the company’s “Our Female Engineering Students Scholarship Programme” which provided scholarships, internships and opportunities for employment to selected final year female engineering students.
“One that excites me is our Reconnect programme that allows mothers who took career breaks to come into Vodafone and through this programme re-discover and gradually prepare to embed themselves back into the workplace.
“We have our now very popular digital skills training programmes – National Coding, ‘Codelikea Girl programme’ which teaches young girls between 14 to 18 years coding programmes. Thousands of young people have been equipped with critical skills for the future including coding and robotics,” she said.
The CEO said the company also had an apprenticeship programme, which was a six-month to one year programme that gave young developers the chance to work on exciting projects.
She said the pandemic had also accelerated the adoption of technology and changed the dynamics of workplaces and skills in demand.
“I keep saying that on-time education is no longer enough. Life-long learning, reskilling and upskilling has become critical to ensuring that both individuals and businesses have access to the talent they need for the jobs of the future.
“We as Vodafone will continue to invest in programmes and initiatives that are aimed at helping to connect the new generation to the new world of work,” she noted.
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