Research has revealed that 9 in 10 graduates in Ghana do not find jobs within 1 year post-graduation.
According to Global Shapers Community, a Worldwide Network of young Changemakers, this is because graduates have inadequate skills.
Again, the Government’s one year mandatory National Service is not being taken advantage of fully as a first job.
Due to this, Global Shapers has launched “My First Job 2.0”, a 9-Month career accelerator for new tertiary graduates undertaking their mandatory 1 year national service.
The initiative will offer practical soft and ICT skills building paired with scalable coaching through inclusive virtual sessions with 100 main fellows.
From previous piloting of the initiative for about 30 fellows, the Changemakers saw change from 9 in 10 not finding jobs within 1 year of graduation to 9 in 10 securing jobs within 18 months post graduation.
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Speaking at the launch, Immaculata King, Incoming Curator for Global Shapers Accra hub explained that the initiative was designed to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and workplace skills by providing training and mentorship to recent graduates, specifically National Service Personnel.
“This programme ensures a seamless school-to-work transition by equipping participants with the skills needed to thrive in their first job and secure their second job after National Service,” she said.
Again, she explained that, “My 1st Job was selected as a winner of the maiden Global Innovation Prize, an award established by the Global Shapers Community, in partnership with Accenture and the Global Alliance for YOUth, to support solutions that address youth unemployment and workplace readiness.”
Immaculata King stated that,”Our vision is to scale this initiative, automate skill-building, and reach thousands of young professionals across Ghana. But we cannot do this alone. It takes collaboration, commitment, and collective action to drive meaningful change.”
Meanwhile, the Project Lead for “My First Job 2.0”, Joel Kojo Abaka Anaman also underscored the need for fresh graduates to have soft skills, job hunting skills and ICT skills.
“They do not get jobs because when you go to our universities, they focus on technical skills only, the technical skills are going to school to learn a subject in class,” he said.
He continued that,”I For instance did pharmacy and so they teach you pharmacy but they do not teach you how to look for jobs or how we will go for an interview or how we will present ourselves when we are looking for jobs, how to speak about our skills and our strengths to the people. So our programme, “My First Job” is here to help.”
Again, Joel said,”For people to go and do national service and feel they have been sent and that when they finish, that is it, we want them to see national service as their first job so that when they go there, they will give it their best shot, they know what to do, the skills they should build, so that by the time they finish, when they go for interviews, the business owners will employ them because they believe they can bring more money because they know how to communicate with clients and that they go to work in time.”
He advised students to explore soft skills before they complete university.
“If you are in the university now, I want to tell you that knowledge is in abundance and you can get it everywhere, If you know how to use ChatGPT, Google, you do not always have to be on social media, or only your lectures, look for soft skills, it is about knowing how to relate with the people in your class, how to speak and do presentation in class, all these are important at work, and so it is important to build these skills while you are in the university, do not wait until you complete before you start looking at these others will become part of the statistics of the only 1 person out of 10 people getting a job after national service,” he advised.
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Ghana| Atinkaonline.com| Porcia Oforiwaa
