On the 20th of November 2020, Role Model Africa launched an initiative known as ‘Everyday Intern’. This initiative is geared towards creating internship placement opportunities for tertiary students all over the country. Just like the name suggests (Everyday Intern), this avenue creates internship opportunities for students on a daily basis in order to gain experience and training in the corporate institution and to earn a stream of income simultaneously.
The launch of this initiative also saw the launch of a website to help facilitate this cause as students can prospect for various roles as well as companies scouting for interns accordingly. With EDI, students are given the avenue to take on roles other than white-collar jobs such as nanny services and home tuition.
The event saw the attendance of various representatives from some enlisted institutions:
National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), GCX, Junior Achievement Ghana, Lancaster University, Firstcode Management Services, SESIL Ventures, Chuck Solutions, Jar to Go, and Yes Chef.
The event commenced with a welcome address from the Team Lead and Co-founder of EDI, Portia Amegayibor. She gave an introduction to how the initiative was formed. She revealed that her team, as young tertiary graduates realized the relevance of student internship and how difficult it is to land such opportunities in this part of the continent. Hence, they painstakingly went to this extent to mobilize resources to ensure others do not go through the same. This led to the birth of the EDI initiative. She then explained how this initiative functions hand in hand with a website on which tertiary students can get their various placements all over the country.
The Guest of Honor, Mr. Kofi Arhin, Director of NEIP, expressed his enthusiasm about such initiatives and highly commended the Role Model Africa team members for putting such an initiative together. He spoke on the importance of internship and highlighted two salient points to this effect. He explained that internships are essential for the development of soft skills and they reduce labor costs in companies as interns can be delegated to perform roles in order to limit the workload of the permanent staff.
Various stakeholders then gave short speeches pertaining to this initiative. These were mainly endorsements and their consent to partake in making the initiative a successful one.
The event also saw an outdoor of the EDI website (www.everydayintern.com), as one of the team members, took all present through an extensive tutorial on how to use the website. He explored all the features of the website and showed how students and companies can equally make good use of it. This site allows students to create a profile and upload their resume while giving companies and individuals the opportunity to upload their job vacancies and scout for great talents. There is also a special section of the website that features insightful articles and other key information that will come in handy to both students and employers.
Samuel Agyeman-Prempeh; the Talent Manager of Role Model Africa and Co-founder of EDI then emphasized the importance of such an initiative. He also announced that the team has secured a training center at Odorkor in Accra, where they would be training tertiary students for various roles to maximize their internships and make them relevant in the world of work. The center will also open its doors to assist students and job seekers with CV reviews/restructuring. Interview preparations and career counseling. He stated that they will be needing some laptops, a projector, a projector screen, and an office desk to aid them to achieve this. He also admonished the various stakeholders to partake in ensuring the success of EDI.
The EDI Launch was sponsored by Lucozade Ghana, Lumière Creatif, Yes Chef, and Wear Purple Clothing.
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 Rising (an offshoot of VOA), for its commitment to mentoring and human capital development in Africa.
Website: www.everydayintern.com
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
