By: Michael Kofi Kenetey
The SOS Children’s Villages Ghana with financial support from DHL Express has organized a one-week boot camp at New Tafo in the Abuakwa North Municipality of the Eastern Region for 51 selected students from some tertiary institutions across the country.
The boot camp is to help equip the tertiary students with the employability skills to be ready for the job market and also to be well-equipped to create jobs for themselves and employ others after school.
The 51 tertiary students were drawn from University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Development Studies, University of Cape Coast, Koforidua Technical University, Takoradi Technical University, Accra Technical University, among others.
They were taken through CV writing, motivation letter writing, interview skills, mock interviewing, career planning and career development, entrepreneurship, branding and communication skills, and digital marketing.
The trainees were also taken through environmental sustainability, sexual and reproductive health, substance abuse, among others. The intensive training also offered the students to network, and work in groups to develop team work skills.
In an interview with GBC News, the National Youth Development Advisor of SOS Children’s Villages Ghana, Godknows Kporha explained that the main goal for organizing the boot camp yearly is to ensure that the young ones graduate from school fully equipped with employability skills required of the labour market.
He encouraged the youth to also learn to acquire the soft skills, since the current job market does not require only the hard skills. Mr Kporha further advised the youth to use the time that they will engage in social vices to acquire the soft skills that the labour market requires.
The Credit Controller at DHL Ghana, and the GOTEACH Ambassador for Ghana, Josephine Ayitey reiterated that in preparing the youth to be fully prepared for the job market or for them to be able to establish themselves after graduation, there is the need to empower them hence their decision to partner SOS CV Ghana. She reiterated that it is pertinent to equip the tertiary students with the employability skills for them to ready for the labour market and even able to create jobs for themselves.
The Administrative Coordinator for DHL Global Forwarding, Benjamin Bello said their decision to partner SOS CV Ghana is to help connect the students and improve their lives for the future. He added that their motto is improving lives and connecting people, hence their decision to partner SOS CV Ghana to bring the participants together to network and also help to improve their lives for the future.
Some participants sharing their experiences with GBC News noted that they have been exposed to things that they had no idea of such as networking skills, CV writing, branding, and communication skills and also entrepreneurial skills.
