Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) Dr Ibrahim Anyars, on Tuesday said that an exit plan forms an integral part of the programme.

NABCO seeks to add value and channel personnel unto their preferred career paths after completing their tertiary education.

“Personnel at the end of the programme would become better for the job market,” he said.

Dr Anyars said this at a graduation ceremony in Accra held for NABCO personnel who had successfully completed courses in various programmes of study via the NABCO Skills and Talent Academy (NSTA) pathways.

The training was in partnership with the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in Information Communication and Technology (AITI-KACE).  

“Graduates who enrolled unto the programme over the last 12 months obviously had added some work experience and knowledge as compared to their counterparts who did not take advantage of the programme,” he said.

Dr Anyars said as personnel enter into the final 12 months of the programme, NABCO has come out with the NABCO Trainees Career Pathway Transition Processing Portal.

It is an online platform created for personnel to upload their profile for transition into permanent jobs, entrepreneurship, and further learning processing.

He said this would enable the Nation Builders make personal choices into the next face of their careers and ensure a fair selection process.

Director General of the AITI-KACE, Mr. Kwasi Adu-Gyan, said NSTA was launched by President Akufo-Addo during the NABCO one-year anniversary celebration on October 17, 2019.

The AITI-KACE Director-General described the partnership with NABCO as natural, with the mandate to bridge the gap between academia and industry to prepare graduates in their various career choices.

He said the students were taken through 80 hours of interactive online lectures and 40 hours of practical hands-on experience and presentations.

He said the faculty was made up of 45 experienced and outstanding professionals who imparted their experience and required knowledge into the beneficiaries.

Mr Adu-Gyan said 87 courses divided into seven thematic areas were run, which included Financial Management, Human Resources, Marketing Management, Data Analysis amongst others.

Director for Business Research and Skill Development, NABCO, Mr Bowan Mubarak, said about 33,000 personnel registered for the programme, with 4,000 starting but only 540 completed it.

The programme had successfully graduated personnel from the Northern belt, Middle belt and the Coastal belt.

He said some of the graduates received certificates in three and two courses; and all courses were fully paid for by government.

A graduate in Marketing Management course, Ms Helina Oforiwaa, was happy to have been part of the programme as it gave her more insight into how to properly apply various marketing tools and branding of products.

She described the programme as flexible and very interactive; “the lecturer was very impactful”.