Tangoba Abayage
Upper East Regional Minister, Tangoba Abayage, has urged beneficiaries of the Nation Builders Corp (NABCo) to take the duties assigned to them seriously and see their engagement with the programme as a channel to securing permanent jobs.
According to Madam Abayage, the beneficiaries can acquire the working experience they need to secure permanent employment in the public and private sectors or establish their own businesses by the end of the three year duration of programme.
“The programme is not just about working; it is also a learning platform, so you need to take advantage of this opportunity to learn and be ready to grab any job opportunity that will come in the course of your stay with NABCo. …Government is committed to the sustainability of NABCo, to give respite to young people in Ghana,” she advised.
The Minister was speaking at the Upper East Regional edition of a nationwide Career Fair, organized by the Nation Builders Corps as part of its Skills and Talents Road Show.
The Skills and Talents Road by NABCo is meant to empower the beneficiaries with information and also help them to identify talents and special skills in them, which they can develop to their advantage as the look forward to permanent job or start their own businesses.
The Bolgatanga edition of the Career Fair saw the beneficiaries being taken through proposal and business plan writing, they were given guidelines on how to prepare a convincing C.V and also preparation towards job interviews.
They were also taken through steps in starting business and entrepreneurship. There was also a counselling session to help NABCo beneficiaries who intend to go back to school, on how to make right academic choices.
According to the Upper East Regional Minister, government in a period of three years has created 350,000 jobs in the public sector.
She added that government is further creating the enabling environment for entrepreneurial development through the President’s Business Support Programme.
She was hopeful that government’s renewed and greater emphasis on building relevant vocational and technical skills to feed the demands of industries will also empower many Ghanaian youth to establish small scale businesses.
Director in-charge of Business Research and Skills Development at NABCo, Mubarak Bowan said the Nation Builders Corps is being implemented in two strands, which are the working and learning strands, adding that, from this year, the leadership of NABCo will seriously monitor beneficiaries at their various work places, to ensure that they are all working and learning on the job.
Mr. Bowan urged the NABCo beneficiaries not to be so content with the GHc700.00 stipends given them, rather they should be learning and working hard to be retained at their various institutions they have ben assigned to.
“This is the time, the platform has been created for you, we have invested in creating the opportunities for you to learn and work at the same time. For those who are with NABCo because of the GHc700.00, it is unfortunate. We want beneficiaries to take advantage of this platform to learn to improve on their lives and incomes after their stay with NABCo.” Mr. Mubarak Bowan advised.
FROM: Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga