A Pan-African non-governmental organisation (NGO), the African Business Centre for Developing Education (ABCDE), has embarked on a series of mentorship programmes to provide career training skills for students in some educational institutions.
The programme is aimed at providing employable skills for students through career guidance in a bid to reduce the growing graduate unemployment in the country.
The Chairman of the ABCDE, Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, said in an interview with the Daily Graphic that the move was to help people, especially students, find employment after school.
“We have been in existence for the past 10 years, and during these years, we have been providing mentorship for students on our campuses,” he said.
“Over the past few years, ABCDE worked initially with a programme of mentorship, internships and scholarships and is now broadening its engagements with the business sector.
“We have so far been to about 20 schools, mostly in the Greater Accra Region, including the University of Ghana and the University of Cape Coast, to mentor students,” he added.
Dr Spio-Garbrah, who is a former Minister of Education, as well as Trade and Industry, said the mentorship programme was in partnership with the business community to help deliver various services to the education sector.
Context
With the ABCDE’s model, industry captains and other professionals serve as mentors and work directly with students to introduce the latter to a broad range of work-readiness skills.
Some of the career models are negotiating skills, personal development skills, information and communications technology (ICT) skills, time management skills, decision-making skills, numeracy and literacy skills, positive work ethics, confidence, leadership and interpersonal skills.
Publication
The centre is expected to roll out the latest version of its publication, the Ghana Directory of Scholarships and Financial Assistance, to guide students on available scholarships in various institutions across the world.
The annual or biennial publication will showcase various academic institutions across the world, available funding and scholarships, career models and the courses offered.
Copies of the publication, which is partly funded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, will be on the market from the first week of September.
It will be the third publication.
Youth Day
The centre will, as part of activities marking this year’s International Youth Day, hold a commemorative event at the GNAT Hall in Accra.
The guest speakers for the event, which will be on the theme: “Transforming Food Systems: Youth innovation in chocolate-making”, are the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum; the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo, and Dr Spio-Garbrah.
Participating schools are the Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High School (SHS), Achimota School, Accra Wesley Girls’ SHS, St Thomas Aquinas SHS, Accra Academy and the Holy Trinity Cathedral SHS.
Institutions that are expected to participate in the event are the Ghana Enterprises Agency, the Ghana Cocoa Board, the Ghana Export Promotion Authority and the Ghana Standards Authority.
