The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

A few years ago, I joined a seminar by One Ayindaa called  ENTERPRISE SATURDAY . The topic was HOW DO I MAKE MYSELF EMPLOYABLE THROUGH VALUE ADDITION? This followed the first Barcamp Ahanta in December 2019 , which was a partnership between GhanaThink and One Ayindaa . As Justice Baidoo puts it, One Ayindaa is a movement of young men and women of Ahanta. This was a year after we at GhanaThink had organized Jobcamps in the 10 regional capitals , and after the National Youth Employment Convening, the #YouthDeyJob & #Youth4Work hashtags were born. Here are a few key things around work readiness and job skills I shared - and now you have access to the same information. Adaptability & Ability to Learn Being able to adapt & fit into different environments, having an attitude of learning, ability to get up to speed to do different tasks and being smart are probably the most crucial things for one to be employable. Lots of young people are taught to take instructions and...

I was checking my favorite news feed source yesterday - Africagoodnews.com . Yes, the name is self-explanatory. They try to aggregate good news about Africa. One story which struck me was that 5 Africans had been named in Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of the Year 2009. I was not surprised to see President Paul Kagame in there, I just blogged about him a few days ago. The other name that struck me was Dambisa Moyo's. I thought to myself, this lady is doing it big. Her 'Dead Aid' book is probably the most important book written by an African in the last few years, and no, it is not a novel. Dambisa and Paul are joined by William Kentridge,(South African artist), Hadizatou Mani (Niger), Barbara Hogan (South Africa's current health minister). Congrats to all these individuals and may they spur us all on to become as influential. I want to dwell on Dambisa Moyo , her Dead Aid book and the chatter it has generated at the water coolers in the blogosphere. I ...

It is never too early to do a curriculum vitae as a friend told me recently, even at age 13 (which is how old you have to be to have a Twitter and a Facebook account :-D. I did my first one using my experiences in Presec while I was applying to MIT for undergraduate study, in a unsuspecting way. We discussed CVs in the 10 Jobcamps that we  GhanaThink Foundation   organized in  May 2018 , one in each regional capital. May 1st is May Day and we have since crowned May as the workers' month. These networking forums were funded by  STAR-Ghana . We had several great discussions about unemployment, underemployment, gainful employment and entrepreneurship in  Accra ,   Koforidua ,  HoCity ,  Kumasi ,  Sunyani ,  Wa ,  Tamale ,  Bolgatanga ,  Cape Coast  and  Takoradi . These CV discussions have also occurred in Whatsapp groups, which have become extremely popular in Ghana and in Africa. I share some of my major th...

As long as we at GhanaThink have been organizing Barcamps , one topic keeps coming up: the "unemployability" of our graduates #inGhana. People talk about how school feels so distant from the actual world of work that it almost makes no sense. These conversations have also ensued through our Konnect groups. It’s a tough reality to face, but as I often say, we have to refuse to "make or buy excuses" if we want to see real change. Less talk, more action, let’s drink malt to that! My own journey took me from studying Science at Presec-Legon to MIT for Civil Engineering and Stanford for Construction Engineering Management. But if you look at what I do today with GhanaThink and consulting in the workforce readiness, youth empowerment and digital spaces, it’s clear I didn't stay strictly in the "engineering lane". I followed my professional interests into technology and youth development because I realized the value of being versatile. What does "V...

Many people have asked me about my interest in one day running for president. “When are you filing your nomination for the presidency”, they ask jokingly. I don’t have any ambition to be a president or participate in politics in the future but the encouragement I receive has me thinking hard about it. Aside from being the patriot I try so hard to be, I have to be seen as a leader to receive such encouragement. I am hopelessly in love with Ghana and the potential of the nation, I am very optimistic about it and sometimes foolishly idealistic. However, I have not always been this way. In this series of blog posts, I will write about my journey to this point and if I am even worth being mentioned in the same breadth with leadership. We can paraphrase a famous Shakespeare quote to introduce leadership. Some are born leaders, some achieve leadership and some others have leadership thrust upon them. Increasingly, I feel I fall into the third category. I don’t even know what it means to be bo...

My senior secondary (high school) experience in Presec constitutes some of the best years in my life. My leadership journey continued. I didn’t get any ‘would you run for president’ questions there but I got similar questions about leadership. Here, I was in a boy’s school, separate from the ‘distractions’ that girls could be and in an environment where you had to be of your best behavior. Being of your best behavior may help shape your leadership abilities, but it is not the only trait or factor in leadership. I didn’t have all these traits in Presec and though I may have gained some, I may still not be the finished product. Writing the first entry about leading into leadership was nice, so we get to do it twice. I chose to go to Presec because it is an excellent school and I also wanted to get away from my parents. I wanted to become more independent and get the chance to ‘live a little’. I wouldn’t go to a Cape Coast school because I didn’t know any relatives there and I had to be ...