The GIZ-Jobberman C-Suite Coffee chat finally was held on Thursday 11th November, at the Fiesta Royale Hotel in Accra with the theme: “The Future of Work; Preparing Young graduates for the labour market”.
In a welcome address, Anne-Marie Castel-langefeld, Component Leader Business Facility Management, GIZ Ghana, explained that the Invest for jobs C-suite coffee chat is a joint collaboration between GIZ Ghana and Jobberman Ghana with the aim of sensitizing, connecting and networking with executive industry experts, human resource managers and tertiary education administrators to discuss critical subject matters of labour market trends and needs assessment.
Anne-Marie revealed that Invest for jobs is leveraging on Jobberman’s expertise in human resource and capital development to provide training and jobs to 300 unemployed graduates.
“Invest for jobs is the brand for the special initiative on training and job creation, implemented by the Duetsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ. Our main aim is to contribute improving economic conditions in selected locations and industries in Ghana including automotive, agriculture, digital, as well as creating sustainable employment opportunities for the youth under 25years in Ghana”, she stated.
Speaking on the theme “The Future of Work; Preparing Young graduates for the labour market”, Dr. Esi E. Ansah an educationist, and founding partner at Axis Human Capital, with great interest in organisational behavior and human resource development, called on tertiary institutions and corporate organizations to marry theories with practicality and create that enabling environment for tertiary students to learn and be ready for the labour market.
Dr. Ansah attributed that the future of work is all about change, and being agile is very essential. Adding that creativity plays a vital role in the future of work, highlighting that creating an enabling environment fosters innovation, creativity, critical and strategic thinking to solve problems.
“The future of work is superfluid and makes a lot of room for exploration, however, let’s make the content relevant and practical to our space. Being able to relate what we do in the classroom into the world of work is key for the future of work. We must learn to contextualize our learnings experiences.
We accept the fact that we are in the technological world, yet we need to remember one key thing, and that is whatever we do must relate to our environment”, she stressed.
Dr. Kwame Annor, on his part, explained that although the future of work demands employees to be resilient, having an engaging healthy work environment is essential to the growth of every business and that employers must pay attention to employee engagement at work.
Speaking on the topic; “Battling employee burnout in the midst of a pandemic”, Dr. Annor pointed out that employee wellbeing must be a culture in the workplace. “Dealing with employee burnout begins with the leadership. Managers and supervisors must be sensitive and set clear goals for their team members. One major cause of employee burnout is unclear performance expectations on the part of superiors.
As managers and supervisors, it is your responsibility to identify the strengths of your employees and leverage their strengths for the betterment of the organization. At the end of the day, it’s the results you are looking for”, he stated.
To conclude the event, there were 2 key panel discussions on “bridging the gap between accademia and the industry” and “Building a timeless and resilient workforce” respectively, with insights shared by industry leaders including Dr. Michaela Choudory, Head of Jobs, Ringier AG, Haralabos Antarakis, CEO Jobberman Ghana, Dr. Prince Annig, Ashesi University and Prof. Yakubu Isaka, University of Mines and Technology and Ezinne Achinivu, AYA Engineering.
Also in attendance for the event was Selassie Nukpe, Assistant Director of Career Services Ashesi University, Ebenezer Agbettor, HRMP Ghana, Joseph Sam, BIMA Ghana among others.
This article is in partnership with Invest for Jobs, an initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and has partnered with Ghana’s number one online recruitment platform, Jobberman Ghana. This partnership is aimed at contributing to the special initiative’s objective of improving economic conditions in selected locations and industry sectors in Ghana, as well as promoting investment for jobs.
