Ghana Tech Lab, Mastercard Foundation train 1,451 youths in digital skills during lockdown

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Ghana’s lockdown saw hundreds of senior high school pupils and university students at home in the president’s quest to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the country. While the action taken by t government was in the right direction, it was also important for these youths to have certain opportunities to upskill themselves while at home.

As a technology laboratory aimed at enhancing digital transformation in Ghana and Africa, Ghana Tech Lab partnered with Mastercard Foundation to enhance the skills of 1,451 youths and provide free mobile data on a needs-basis so some participants were able to enrol in a two-week free online training programme during the lockdown period.

The GTL Lockdown Training programme was one of the many free training initiatives by Tech Lab over the past years. This initiative was aimed to provide Senior High Students, University Students, and Entrepreneurs an opportunity to learn and upgrade their skills during the lockdown period.

it was also intended to give some reasons for the youths to stay at home during the period while complying with the president of Ghana’s directives.

The training programme, which was facilitated through the online platform Zoom, gave opportunities for participants to choose one course from a list of two to partake in.

Senior High Students had the option to choose being trained in social media management or mobile phone photography. University students were presented with an option to be trained in the introduction to AI or graphic design.

Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, were given the option to choose from business development for startups or accounting for startups.

More on the programme

A total number of 4,591 applications were received across the country at the commencement of this free online training programme.

Out of the total number, 4,081 applicants were selected to participate in the training programme. The training programme lasted for two weeks, with 880 hours spent on training time. A total of 25 experienced trainers facilitated sessions with their trainees digitally, through the virtual online platform Zoom.

During the training, a total number of 609 individuals were given data scholarships daily to assist them to participate in the training. The training ended with 1,451 active individuals being equipped with digital skillsets in social media management, mobile phone photography, Introduction to AI, graphic design, business development, and accounting for startups.

The Lockdown Online Training programme started on April 6, 2020 and ended on April 17, 2020. Active participants were given certificates upon completion of the course.

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