50 BECE female graduates receive skills training
A Foundation set up by the 2021 National Best Teacher, Stella Gyimaah Larbi, has held a skills training programme for more than 50 female junior high school (JHS) graduates of the Adenta Community School.
Under the Skills Impact Summit (SIS), the project seeks to train girls who have graduated from JHS to develop their skills sets to equip them for life.
The participants of the initiative also included JHS graduates from the Konkonuru Methodist Basic School and Ketasie M.A, both in Aburi in the Eastern Region.
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Training
According to Ms Larbi, the training sessions which were in three parts involved teaching the participants how to manufacture fascinators, brooches, beads and decorative wall paintings.
A third session saw the children being trained in writing, public speaking skills and how to be emotionally intelligent.
Ms Larbi intimated that she included those as a session because they were some of the basic skills that children in public schools usually lacked.
She stated as a realisation that some of the young people from the public schools were not able to speak out because they did not have the right words and the right voice to do so.
Thus, teaching them the skills of writing and public speaking would help the children build confidence as well as speak out on issues that bothered them.
"We are teaching them how to speak publicly irrespective of where they find themselves. So once they are able to speak out, nobody would harm them. Because sometimes things are happening but they can't talk about it. So we teach them how to confidently talk about things happening around them that they are not happy with," Ms Larbi intimated.
On the subject of emotional intelligence, Ms Gyimaah expressed worry about the children's inability to control their emotions when faced with certain situations.
As part of initiatives to develop the skills of the participants, the programme, as an add up initiative, sponsors 10 girls to further undergo intense training with collaborated institutions.
"I’ve been able to get all these ladies on board who are from my circle and so those who develop the interest go on for further training for free. So I enrol those who acquire the skill and excel in it," she stated.
Rationale for training
The 2021 National Best Teacher explained that "we see the young girls as preys that predators can easily fall on and in line with that we put up the skills training so that as they are home just after the BECE, you know they stay home sometimes for three months or more, they will have these skills and do something with it to even get them money," she explained.
Some of these predators she mentioned included girls falling victims to men resulting in teenage pregnancy, loss of virginity and poverty, spending long hours watching television, among others.
"We believe that this girls can do something. They being the prey, they can be kept away from men, television and all other distractions" Ms Larbi said.