Role Model Africa has launched an initiative known as ‘Everyday Intern (EDI)’, towards creating internship placement opportunities for tertiary students all over the country.
Just like the name suggests, Everyday Intern provides an avenue for internship opportunities for students on a daily basis in order to gain experience and training in the corporate institution and to earn a stream of income simultaneously.
This makes it possible for students to engage in internships while in school and not only during the summer vacations. The launch of this initiative also saw the launch of a website to help facilitate this cause as students can prospect for various roles as well as companies scouting for interns accordingly. With EDI, students are given the avenue to take on roles other than white collar jobs such as nanny services and home tuition.
The event saw the attendance of various representatives from some enlisted institutions including the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), GCX, Junior Achievers, Lancaster University, First Code Management Services, SESIL Ventures, Chuck Solutions, Jar to Go and Yes Chef.
Team Lead and Co-founder of EDI, Portia Amegayibor, noted that her team realized that young tertiary graduates realized the relevance of student internship but find it difficult to land such opportunities in this part of the continent.
“Hence, we painstakingly went this extent to mobilize resources to ensure others do not go through same. This led to the birth of the EDI initiative,” she said, then explaining how this initiative functions hand in hand with a website of which tertiary students can get their various placements all over the country.
Guest of Honor, Kofi Arhin, Director of NEIP, expressed his enthusiasm about such initiatives and highly commended the Role Model Africa team members for putting such an initiative together.
He spoke on the importance of internship and highlighted two salient points to this effect. He explained that internships are essential for the development of soft skills and they reduce labor cost in companies as interns can be delegated to perform roles in order to limit the workload of the permanent staff.
The event also saw the outdooring of the EDI website (www.everydayintern.com), as one of the team members took all present through an extensive tutorial on how to use the website. He explored all the features of the website and showed how students and companies can equally make good use of it.
This site allows students to create a profile and upload their resume while giving companies and individuals the opportunity to upload their job vacancies and scout for great talents. There is also a special section of the website that features insightful articles and other key information that will come in handy to both students and employers.
Samuel Agyeman-Prempeh, Talent Manager of Role Model Africa and Co-founder of EDI then emphasized the importance of such an initiative. He also announced that the team has secured a training center at Odorkor in Accra, where they would be training tertiary students for various roles to maximize their internships and make them relevant in the world of work.
The center will also open its doors to assist students and job seekers with CV reviews/restructuring. Interview preparations and career counseling. He stated that they will be needing some laptops, a projector, projector screen and office desk to aid them achieve this. He also admonished the various stakeholders to partake in ensuring the success of EDI.
The EDI Launch was sponsored by Lucozade Ghana, Lumière Creatif, Yes Chef and Wear Purple Clothing.
Role Model Africa is a youth employment accelerator that adopts mentoring as a strategic tool to groom young Africans for various career prospects. Its interventions such as the ‘Role Model Dialogue’, ‘Ideas Pulpit’ and ‘She Magnate’ have been effective tools in impacting the youth of Ghana largely. The organization provides tailored assistance to students, job seekers and professionals on career enhancement strategies.
