The Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, has said the ministry is working assiduously to create 100,000 digitally enabled jobs in the next two years through an ongoing one million coders programme.
“Basically, we are now pivoting away from training into a job creation model. And I am confident that in the next two years, our target to create thousands of jobs for beneficiaries as part of the programme will be realised,” he said, adding, “you cannot find jobs when you do not have the required skills to do it”.
Mr George, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ningo Prampram Constituency, said this in an interview with the media after a field visit to centres where beneficiaries of the government’s one million coders programme were being trained in the Ashanti Region.
The minister, who was accompanied by the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), Sofo Tanko Rashid-Computer, and some officials of the ministry, also paid a courtesy call on the Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr Frank Amoakohene, and the management of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
Mr George presented 2,000 additional computers to the university to increase the number of centres for the training.
The team toured other training centres in Kwadaso, Asawase, Nyameama, Dawia and Abenua.
Outsourcing
The minister also said that his outfit was working with the Business Outsourcing Services Association of Ghana (BOSAG), where graduates would be provided with jobs to fill vacancies in businesses that wanted to outsource jobs in the country.
He advised beneficiaries to go through the full training - from the beginning to intermediate and advanced levels-- to make them more marketable.
“Having three certificates from the training increases your chances for employability. If you have one slot for a job and there is someone who has done a beginner course and the other with an advanced certificate, the opportunity will be given to the latter,” the minister added.
During a courtesy call on the KNUST management, Mr George said the ministry would give policy direction while the university led the charge to realise the full benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
He urged KNUST to lead the charge in building language models that would safeguard the nation’s indigenous languages, stressing “if we are not careful, AI will create an extinction of our local African languages”.
Beneficiaries
The Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, Professor Christian Agyare, said the university was working very hard to increase the number of beneficiaries under the programme, which currently stood at 1,447.
He lauded the programme and said it would go a long way to reduce the high rate of unemployment among the youth.
Prof. Agyare also expressed appreciation to the ministry for the provision of 2,000 laptop computers to expand the programme on campus.
Writer’s email;
