50 benefit from SOS Children's Villages Boot Camp

The SOS Children Villages has held a soft skills boot camp for young people on its programmes across tertiary institutions in the country.

The five-day boot camp themed "Empowering Young People With Employability Skills For The World of Work", was concluded last Friday (September 30). It saw 30 young men and 20 young women from the Children's Villages in Tema, Asiakwa, Tamale and Kumasi who are currently in various tertiary schools taken through soft skills to soft skills to bolster their chances in job search of self-employment.

At the boot camp held at Nsawam in partnership with DHL Global Forwarding, AmaliTech and Future Careers Ghana (FCG), the beneficiaries were taken through skills such as "curriculum vitae, cover letter and motivational letter writing; networking, branding, communication skills, financial management, interview skills, public speaking and presentation skills".

The rest were; "personality traits in relation to career path and understanding mindset; new occupation in the global setting and career opportunities in the ICT space".

Impact

In an interview with Daily Graphic, the National Organiser of Children Villages Programme, Mr Godknows Kporha said the boot camp programme was designed to help their beneficiaries balance their hard skills with soft skills to help them remain competitive with an advantage after leaving school.

"In our programme in SOS Children's Villages, our focus is that all young people leaving out programmes are equipped before they complete school with the relevant employability skills to remain relevant and competitive in the job market," he said.

He enumerated that with a 9-year partnership with DHL Global Forwarding, over 1,000 young people from the SOS Children's Villages across Ghana have been taken through such boot camps many of whom are currently gainfully employed with the rest self-employed and are contributing to the development of the country.

He expressed gratitude to their partners (DHL, Future Careers Ghana, AmaliTech) as well as volunteers, and hoped to form a stronger bond to impact more lives in the nearest future.

Drive

Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the National Director of SOS Children's Villages, Mr Alexander Mar Kekula indicated that their drive is to ensure that young people are equipped with skills to gain employment or be self-employed.

He added that aside the training, the SOS Children's Villages has the drive to help serious beneficiaries with start-up capital for young people who want to start their businesses.

"We have to look for resources and help those who are really serious with a start-up capital for their own businesses. We cannot allow young people go to other countries and get stranded because they are going without any skills; some of whom are killed. We have to help our young people to be equipped with skills relevant for their chosen career paths. The population of Africa is growing very fast; today over 50 per cent of the population consists of young people this is our drive to help young people in this country," he said.

On the enrolment currently on SOS Children's Villages programmes, he indicated that "we have over 3,000 children and they are with their biological parents or guardian and we ensure that they stay school and they are doing so well. We have over 600 children who are in the SOS Family and Foster Care".

Necessities

In an interview with Daily Graphic, the National Organiser of Children Villages Programme, Mr Godknows Kporha said the boot camp programme was designed to help their beneficiaries balance their hard skills with the soft skills to help them remain competitive with an advantage after leaving school.

"In our programme in SOS Children's Villages, our focus is that all young people leaving out programmes are equipped before they complete school with the relevant employability skills to remain relevant and competitive in the job market," he said.

He enumerated that with a 9-year partnership with DHL Global Forwarding, over 1,000 young people from the SOS Children's Villages across Ghana have been taken through such boot camps many of whom are currently gainfully employed with the rest self-employed and contributing to the development of the country.

Unemployable skills

The Administrator of DHL Global Forwarding, Mr Benjamin Bello told GraphicOnline, that there is a need to connect the youth to the world of work by giving them employable skills.

Patricia Naa Akweley and Samuel Zormelo, two beneficiaries from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and the University of Ghana respectively said the boot camp would help improve their chances of gaining internship opportunities and jobs after school.

The two affirmed that the boot camp has equipped them with quality soft skills which they never learnt in school including "CV and cover letter writing", and believed has given them an advantage over their equals.