Gold Fields Ghana Limited, a gold mining company in the Western Region, has initiated a programme to train about 47 young graduates to acquire the right skills and competencies to make them employable in their chosen professions.
The mining company, under its Gold Fields Foundation, has set aside about $500,000 to support the programme over a two-year period after which a new batch will be enrolled.
The programme also forms an integral part of the company’s host community skills development strategy, which aims at enhancing the quality of human capital in communities hosting the Tarkwa and Damang mines of the company in the region.
It is also designed to build a talent pipeline for the company by enrolling university graduates who have completed National Service on a two-year structured, on-the-job training and development.
The Learning and Development Department of the mining company had structured the programme to enhance the learning experiences of the trainees by exposing them to various aspects of the mining operations.
The first batch of the 47 graduates were enrolled in November 2018 and are currently acquiring knowledge and skills in departments such as Mining, Engineering, Metallurgy, Finance, Human Resources and Community Affairs.
Executive Vice President and Head of Gold Fields West Africa, Alfred Baku, disclosed this at the launch of the Gold Fields Ghana Foundation Graduate Trainee Programme at Tarkwa.
He mentioned that whenever the Gold Fields Ghana Foundation decided to embark on shared-value and high-impact projects, education enjoyed the largest share of host community investments.
“Averagely, about 40 per cent of the Foundation’s budget is spent annually on the development of human capital of our host communities. Over the past 14 years, the Foundation has invested over US$10.7 million in education in the host communities”, he revealed.
According to him, it was common knowledge that graduate unemployment continued to be a major challenge for the country.
He added “After four years of tertiary education and one year of national service, parents expect to see their children gainfully employed to ease the burden on the family”.
Mr Baku then mentioned that the introduction of the Graduate Trainee Programme added to the many skills acquisition programmes that Gold Fields had implemented in the host communities over the years.
BY Emmanuel Opoku, Tarkwa