Young Professional and Youth Coalition promotes welfare of youth
Young Professional and Youth Coalition (YPYC), a non-governmental organisation that seeks to promote the welfare and advancement of the Ghanaian youth, has held a career transformational seminar in Accra.
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The seminar, which is organised quarterly, is aimed at equipping participants in the areas of planning, leadership, wealth creation, career enhancement, entrepreneurship and investment geared towards inculcating new sets of generational values, attitudes and behaviours in the youth.
The President of the coalition, Mr Andy Osei Okrah, challenged the youth of Ghana, who are mostly students, and the increasing number of unemployed graduates to take advantage of the social media to establish themselves and enhance their livelihood.
“The time has come for the good people of Ghana to embrace the digital divide and change the same ways of tackling issues”, he stressed.
He urged the youth to form small entrepreneurial groups and use the social media to turn things around for themselves and their communities. Hammering on what one needed to consider when looking for a job, Mr Osei Okrah cautioned the youth not to always rely on the public sector and the so called big companies, adding that the least one could do was to start his or her own business.
“It is about time the youth came to realise that all the big companies and corporate organisations today were the ideas of individuals, and did not start as big as we see currently,” he said.
He urged the youth to put to practice their ideas with the few resources they had, stressing that ‘Rome was not built in a day’.
He advised job seekers not to be too conscious in looking for only lucrative jobs in order to enrich themselves, but should also adopt the habit of volunteering.
This, he said, was instrumental in securing for oneself a livelihood. “If you do a great job, even if it is a temporary job, whoever hired you is more likely to recommend you for a permanent position,” he added.
Mr Okrah noted that volunteering was one of the biggest opportunities for one to establish himself, since it gave insight into one’s attitude and transformational characters to potential employers.
“When companies are hiring, they are looking not only for people who can get the job done but also for people with character and integrity,” he said.
Mr Okrah emphasised that for one to stand tall in his or her quest in becoming an asset to the Ghanaian community, there was the need for individuals to think outside the box and refrain from following the crowd in doing the old same things every day.
Dr Esi Ansah, Assistant Professor, Ashesi University, in her keynote address, cautioned graduates not to fold their arms and worship their curriculum vitae (CV), but should effectively apply the entrepreneur skills they had acquired.
“Let evidence speak for you, not your CV”, she noted.
She differentiated schooling from education, saying certificate was not the panacea to unemployment, but what mattered most was how one could turn his or her ideas into opportunities.
Dr Ansah noted that in order for one to attain success in life, there was the need to take risk and also to develop a passion and interest in one’s chosen career.
She stressed that entrepreneurship was not all about one’s capital with which to start a business, but the ability to invest in time, energy and the allocation of fundamental resources.
She advised the gathering to desist from the popular ‘who you know’ syndrome when searching for a job, adding that even if one chose the back door to gain employment in any reputable organisation, his inability to deliver would expose him.
Story: Emmnuel Baah / Daily Graphic/ Ghana