The Ghana commodities Exchange partnered with Role Model Africa to host the internship recruitment forum to facilitate internships and career placement to tertiary students in Ghana. The forum was a 3- day event which took place over zoom for day sessions and Instagram (IG) for evening sessions. It was designed this way to give participants a variety of options to play a part. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the organizers of the forum thought it wise to host the event virtually and this was the first of its kind for Role Model Africa.
The forum which was themed ‘Exploring remote working options for students’ made it possible for students from different universities across the country to participate in these educative virtual sessions. The University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Cape Coast, Valley View University, Wisconsin, UPSA, Accra Technical University, Methodist University College, Pentecost were a few tertiary institutions that had their students participating in the IRF.
Prior to the event, a lot of publicity was done on these campuses and at media houses. The event’s promotion ranged from interviews on TV stations like ETV Ghana and ATV to interviews at the radio stations on the earlier mentioned campuses and even talks in lecture rooms just to allow as many students as possible to get involved. It is no surprise that students from Jianghan University, Wuhan, P.R China, and the University of London also participated in the Internship Recruitment Forum this year.
The IRF was graced with seasoned facilitators in their various fields of expertise; HR Professionals and Managers in renowned companies, Lecturers, Entrepreneurs, Musicians, and Actors Personalities that are well versed in these areas were happy to speak to our over 600 participants. All facilitators did their best to make sessions interactive and encouraged students to ask questions.
Students were given the requisite mind-set and the right set of attitudes to have in order to excel in our very fast-paced world of work through the presentations. Participants were informed on what employers are looking out for and the new trends to keep up within any work environment.
The forum began on the 1st of July, 2020 at 10 am with an eye-opening keynote presentation by the Chief Operations Officer of the GCX; Mr. Robert Dowuona Owoo. He spoke on the various opportunities in Agribusiness and encouraged students to explore their options and take advantage of the many viable possibilities in that regard. Mr. Owoo said; ‘‘one of the many reasons why the GCX is relevant is because it acts as a medium for smallholder farmers to discover realistic prices for their commodities. This helps them to be price givers rather than price takers. This helps farmers to benefit more from their toil and in effects help reduce the incidence of food shortages in the country’.
Samuel Agyeman-Prempeh; the Talent Manager at Role Model Africa emphasized on the need to do internships when he did a presentation on the 3rd day on ‘Roadmap For Interns’. According to the Talent Manager, participating in internships provides you a foot-in-the-door to the prospective company you hope to be employed in while serving as a test-drive for your career. This put the entire message of doing internships in perspective in the minds of the passionate global participants of the Internship Recruitment Forum.
The forum aimed at aligning the optimism of students with the right set of attitudes to land them internships and possibly a permanent placement had, secured several slots from sponsoring companies to accommodate students for their long vacation internship.
The Head of Finance at GCX; Mr. Albert Nii Ayi Tagoe said that ‘He was excited about the initiative and was particularly impressed with the avenue the forum was creating for students to learn and efficiently use their time even amidst the unusual times the country and world at large are experiencing’. Mr. Tagoe commended the effort of all resource persons and the willingness of companies who were ready to recruit interns.
Critical to the success of the forum is its function of connecting hundreds of Ghanaian Tertiary students across Ghana to various companies for structured remote and direct internship placement. Portia Amegayibor; Head of Communications and Partnerships at Role Model Africa encouraged most companies to open up its doors to absorb various students for internship placement. She further admonished more individuals and organizations to consider future partnerships and sponsorships with Role Model Africa to advance the cause of career placement across the country.
The Internship Recruitment Forum was sponsored by Lucozade Ghana, Allianz Life Insurance, Lumière Creatif, CLS Clothing, Lexta Ghana, Yes Chef, and Wear Purple Clothing.
About GCX
GCX is a regulated market that links buyers and sellers of commodities to trade by rules and its main objective is to link Ghanaian smallholder farmers to agricultural and financial markets in Ghana and across the West African Sub-Region to ensure Ghana farmers secure competitive prices for their commodities, as well as supply good quality commodities which meet the nutritional needs of the Ghanaian people.
About ROLE MODEL AFRICA
Role Model Africa is a youth employment accelerator that adopts mentoring as a strategic tool to groom young Africans for various career prospects. Its interventions such as the ‘Role Model Dialogue’, ‘Ideas Pulpit’, and ‘She Magnate’ have been effective tools in impacting the youth of Ghana largely. The organization provides tailored assistance to students, job seekers, and professionals on career enhancement strategies.
Role Model Africa has received mentions in Daily Graphic (Ghana), Daily Sun Newspaper (Nigeria), and Africa Rizing (an offshoot of VOA), for its commitment to mentoring and human capital development in Africa.
Contact Role Model Africa HERE.
