Penelope Brooke Thompson
Penelope Brooke Thompson, founder of the African Centre for Technical Training (ACTT) has been awarded as an Extraordinary Leader Transforming A Field by the Unorthodox Philanthropy (UP), a charitable organisation focused on identifying great people and supporting innovative and globally impactful initiatives.
The award has come shortly after she was named one of the 100 Most Impactful Change Makers in Ghana by the Humanitarian Awards Global.
Penelope has been working at the intersection of education, technology, and operations management throughout her career.
She holds a BA in Economics from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and an MBA in finance from Coventry University, where she graduated top of her class. At the start of her career, she taught at Ashesi University. She made the move from higher education to IT, managing large-scale projects for a broad mix of public and private sector clients including implementing a novel electronic billing and payment system for Ghana Water Company Ltd. and playing a lead role in the National Digital Property Addressing Project in Ghana. She has also run two Ghanaian tech companies as Chief Operating Officer and General Manager.
She founded the ACTT to help bridge the technical skills gap in the industry by offering a range of high-quality technical and vocational training programs to certify artisans, mentoring and support services, and access to job placement opportunities.
She won the award due to her exploits with the ACTT.
“My team and I are incredibly honoured and grateful for the support we have received from UP. This represents a breakthrough for us and will help us achieve our next milestones. But more importantly, we appreciate having UP in our corner…because they care about our success and scaling intended impact across Africa. There are many great opportunities in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), and we believe that with the right partnerships, we will be able to impact thousands of lives,” Penelope said after receiving the award.
Unorthodox Philanthropy has a history of supporting innovative and impactful initiatives that create large-scale improvements in human welfare in various sectors. The partnership with ACTT reflects its commitment to promoting economic empowerment and sustainable development across the globe.
“Last year, Unorthodox Philanthropy launched a global search to identify extraordinary leaders that have a unique vision, a strong entrepreneurial nature, and an outsized ambition, passion, and commitment to transform a field. UP is thrilled to be supporting Penelope on her journey to build the next generation technical and vocational training institute for artisans across the African continent,” Director of UP, Katherine Clements also stated.