Jobberman Ghana has partnered with Invest for Jobs, an initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, to provide training and jobs to 300 unemployed graduates.
Invest for Jobs is the brand of the special initiative on training and job creation implemented by Deutsche Gesekkschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH among others. It is aimed at contributing to the Special Initiative Objective of improving economic conditions in selected locations and industry sectors in Ghana as well as promoting investment for jobs.
As part of the partnership, the German Cooperation supported Jobberman’s initiative with GHC564,600 to bridge the gap between academia and industry and place 300 unemployed by the end of 2021.
In an interview, the Chief Executive Officer of Jobberman Ghana, Harry Antarakis at noted that the partnership is a ground-breaking feat that dawns the jobs creation ecosystem with the needed insights, capacity improvements and key actions in generating sustainable growth that democratizes employment opportunities and hiring in Ghana. We are very proud to be part of this impact-led initiative.
He made this statement at the Invest for Jobs – C-suit coffee chat hosted by Jobberman to bring leading public and private tertiary institutions in Ghana in contact with Human Resource Managers from an array of sectors.
Over the period of the partnership, the institutions will work to fulfil the set programme objective of providing improved access to innovative demand-oriented employment facilitation in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises as well as increasing the job creating-growth of Ghanaian and European enterprises in Ghana.
On her part, the Head of Sales at Jobberman Ghana, Hilda Nimo-Tieku, said that the event is aimed at labour need assessment, job placement, capacity building and bridging the gap between industry and academia as well as providing soft skills training relevant for employment.
She said: “Sometimes people get employed and all they have is academic skills. Today, employees have moved beyond theory and need practical experienced people to work with. Now, how do people get experience after theory? That is when we, at Jobberman, come in. We recruit, we train, we prepare and provide employable skills, especially with soft skills such as the right attitude towards work and work ethics. We place them in institutions where they can intern to learn these skills and improve their value.”
She said because of the changing industry, job needs have evolved and employees have moved beyond the traditional ways of job qualifications.
“Employees are no longer looking for just marketing managers. They are looking for Digital Marketing Managers; they don’t need Personal Assistants and secretaries, they are looking for people who can write articles and edit. They are looking for people with Public Relations and Journalistic skills. So the traditional means of employment has evolved. So we provide in-depth knowledge and presence for the employees we engage to reveal to them what the current trends are and how they can build their capacities to meet the requirements of the job market”, she added”, she added.
Outlining some of the observations from Jobberman’s engagement with employees, Hilda Nimo-Tieku emphasized the need for employees to understand the changing demands of the work environment. She noted that many young employees are unprepared and afraid to be in the Business Development department because it is target based and they lack the required skills to deliver.
She revealed that many females are less interested in technical roles and this has made the space very male-dominated. She said “We have therefore put in a lot of effort to engage the females and find out why this is so. We realised that many of them are more conversant with the stereotype of becoming secretaries and P.As. So we have maximized our efforts into educating them on the need to develop interest in the technical areas.”
Madam Nimo-Tieku said Jobberman is focused on engaging academia to identify how the two can collaborate to provide practical skills for students so they are prepared adequately for the job market before they graduate.
