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...

On Sunday September 16, I was added to the NUGS Volta Region Bloc Women's Platform to share and discuss volunteering and volunteeringh . It was exciting to do this after Barcamp Ho coordinator Courage Christson Tetteh had done something similar with them earlier. Pamela Klutse is a young lady I admire and it was great to have this discussion with her, Makafui Tsey and other young tertiary level ladies based in the Volta Region, many of which have never been to Barcamp Ho . The various submissions I shared are important for National Volunteer Day so here is another #MightAfrican blog post :-) Remember to join us for NVDay18 , see more details at volunteeringh.org Sometime in late 2012 - in lieu of the elections - #GhanaDecides , some GhanaThink members  and I were thinking about the lack of great leadership in Ghana. We believed that many of our political leaders didnt inspire confidence in Ghanaians or cause us to act. We believed that we needed to lead more as individ...

In 2013,  GhanaThink  decided to institute  National Volunteer Day - NVDay . This was to.encourage many people in Ghana to volunteer, make impact in our communities, help solve problems in ways we could, and help people. It wasn't just to help people, but help ourselves as volunteers : in  building skills - especially soft skills, gaining experience, networks , etc. See more about the first couple of years on  Wikipedia . We chose  Founders' Day - September 21 . This was a day the  Atta Mills led government  instituted as a day to remember the founders of Ghana (men and women) who did great things for Ghana. By volunteering around September 21, we would also be  doing something for Ghana. On December 5, 2013 on the occasion of International Volunteer Day, the   Ghana Volunteer Program program was created by GhanaThink to run National Volunteer Day and match volunteers to volunteer opportunities . National Volunteer Day's home on th...

I've blogged about the  +Junior Camp Ghana  program started and grew. As part of providing value to high school students in Ghana, primarily through, we organized Junior Camps in Ketasco , Kalpohin and Augusco .  +GhanaThink Foundation 's Junior Camp Ghana program has grown into 21 events since January 2013. It includes a collaboration with the +Ahaspora Ghana  Young Professionals in mentoring some senior high school students. Our first major partner is  +Webster University 's Ghana campus, which we truly appreciate. Our +Diaspora Camp  member  +Thelma Boamah  applied for a grant to run an internship program for high school students last year. After working through it, getting the grant and supporting more junior camps, we are at the point where the Junior Camp Ghana Internship Program is live. Before I leave you with details, I'll like to recognize those who have led us to this point under the leadership of Thelma.  +Gamel...

We at GhanaThink believe strongly in our mission: mobilize and organize talent for the primary benefit of Ghana and our vision: build a critical mass of patriotic, passionate, positive, proactive, progressive and productive young Ghanaians . Our mission is very broad so there are so many things we can do but we would only do what's easiest for us to succeed at given our state and situation  . We started GhanaThink with the spirit of volunteerism . To this day, GhanaThink is run by 100+  volunteer members and labour , including myself.  Volunteeringh opportunities with us exist for all Barcamps we organize. Aside the members, we normally have a group of volunteers per each local team,  and if we need more, we look for some. Currently, we normally get new volunteers through our community - Konnect , etc or people who we have noted who want to volunteer with us. Volunteerism is when people decide to help get something done to help others without being paid for it ....

When I started using the internet a lot in 2001, I kept hearing about bridging the digital divide. The internet boom and dotcom bust had happened in the US, and for us in Ghana, we were struggling with access to the internet and having to deal with the few internet cafes at their expensive costs. A decade after, we had made a lot of ground with internet access and digital participation thanks to mobile phones. Thanks to my work around GhanaThink and my work at Google, I knew and worked well several digital champions in Africa, building web and mobile apps, etc. The next frontier we had to cross was the digital divide between men and women. A lot of strides have been made, but there is a lot more that can be done. In 2013, I was a Product and Project Manager at Rancard, a major tech company in Ghana that had multinational clients and served customers all over Africa. I worked with lots of engineers on recommendation, payment, communication and content management web and mobile apps. We ...

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...