Initiative to provide avenues for graduate employment launched
An initiative that seeks to empower students in selected universities to get the best possible jobs after school has been launched in Accra.
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To be achieved through the competitive environment of a reality TV show, the initiative, dubbed: “The job”, will start airing in October 2017 and run for 13 weeks.
Addressing the media at the launch, Mr Joe Jackson, the Director of Business Operations at Dalex Finance, the lead sponsor of the show, noted that many graduates were working outside because there were no jobs in the country.
“Dalex realises that if it can help graduates get jobs, then it will have to empower the graduates to get the best possible jobs after school,” he stated.
He called on other institutions to support the show.
Qualification
To participate in ‘The Job’, one must be a student of the University of Ghana (UG), the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the University for Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), the University of Cape Coast (UCC), the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) and the University for Development Studies (UDS).
Mr Jackson explained that those universities were chosen because they had the highest number of students.
He said the students would compete for themselves and for their schools.
Students can register for the show on the website www.thejob233.com and follow the registration instructions. These include registration and activation of their own investment account with Dalex SWIFT.
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Selection process
As part of the show, a career counselling seminar and a practical selection interview will be held on each university campus, after which 10 candidates will be selected from each university.
All selected candidates will participate in a one-day leadership development workshop, after which 12 best performing candidates will be selected to ‘The Job’ house.
Contestants will compete in two teams that undertake practical business tasks in the areas of Operations, Sales, Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility.
The teams and the contestants are judged based on their skills in Planning, Execution, Teamwork and Leadership by a panel of three judges led by an award-winning CEO.
Members of the losing team will be ejected until a winner emerges.
‘The Job’ house contestants will be rewarded with prized internships with local and foreign companies and the winner will get ‘The Job’, in addition to a cash prize.
Students discover themselves
In an address at the launch, Prof. Joshua Alabi, a former Vice-Chancellor of the UPSA, stressed that there was a gap between what the universities offered their students and what the students needed.
He emphasised that institutions must find creative ways to help students discover themselves while in school to help graduates employ themselves.
He was happy that a reputable organisation such as Dalex Finance had taken up the challenge, stating that the experience would give all the participants the opportunity to be more creative and employ themselves after school.
Unemployed youth
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dalex Finance, Mr Ken Thompson, noted that the number of unemployed youth in the country was growing and “a lot are also hungry for direction to be successful”.
He indicated that the reality TV show would give the young people some training, skills and a savings habit that would help them get jobs or engage in businesses.
