Absa Bank has engaged a total of 65 youth with financial, entrepreneurial and work skills as part of its ReadytoWork initiative.

The programme seeks to equip the Ghanaian youth with the right resources to transit from learning to earning in the modern workplace.

The engagement took place in Accra in partnership with the Aequitas Foundation, which is currently organising a 6-week internship programme for selected youth under a programme dubbed, “Aequitas Experience.”

A group of Absa employee volunteers led by the bank’s Head of Citizenship took the students through key skills in leadership, career strengths and people skills.

The participants also had the opportunity to learn and develop robust workplace skills in their chosen fields of interest.

Head of Citizenship at Absa Bank, Priscilla Yeboah, said: “We are in the business of creating and transforming the youth to fulfill their career and leadership aspirations as they transit from the school environment to the workplace. The ReadytoWork initiative is a key part of the bank’s education and skills development pillar and has been impacting the lives of many youths in the past five years. It aligns with the bank’s overall CSR strategy of creating a valuable impact and pushing the frontiers of innovation and creativity.”

Speaking after the engagement, Executive Director of Aequitas Foundation, Rev. Ekua Ofori Boateng said: “The unemployment rate among our youth remains high and this is largely due to the discrepancy between the kind of skills sought by employers and what jobseekers bring to the market. At Aequitas, we believe that with the proper training, coupled with a safe and enabling institutional environment, our youth would have a fair opportunity to be useful, relevant and adaptive in a dynamic job market.”

The ReadytoWork initiative utilises knowledge and skills transfer through an online portal where the youth can sign on and track performance, through physical engagements, and virtual webinar sessions, in the execution of the programme.