Forum to develop students’ entrepreneurial skills to be held in Tamale

Junior Achievers Trust International (JATI), a non-governmental organisation, (NGO) would hold its 7th Annual Students’ Company Forum in Tamale to train students to develop ‘the can-do spirit’ to become successful entrepreneurs in future.

The event serves as a platform to train Senior High School students to acquire practical skills in basic business practices to add value to the theoretical aspects of Business Studies.

The one-week forum, which is on the theme: “Youth Entrepreneurship; A Growth to the Ghana Economy,” is scheduled for April 15 to 21 and expected to bring together more than 500 students across the country for an intensive entrepreneurship training.

Mr Paul Yeboah, Chief Executive Officer of JATI, who spoke the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday in Accra, mentioned other participants as teachers, national service personnel and stakeholders in the entrepreneurship industry.

He said the usual outcry of Ghanaians, especially the youth, about unemployment encouraged JATI to annually organize such forums to train students to acquire entrepreneurial skills for their future development.

He said the development of every country depended on how its economy performed on the local and international markets, stressing that, private sector development was a critical engine in economic growth.

He said it was essential for every country to be highly concerned about the development of entrepreneurship.

“Most people are unable to endure the risk factor in business,” he said. “There are a few entrepreneurs who most of the time, are able to face the storm but others fall by the roadside due to lack of proper training and fortitude.”

Mr Yeboah mentioned some of the topics to be discussed at the forum as Introduction to Entrepreneurship, Operating a Business, Human Resource and Training, Team Work and Communication and Practical Art Work.

Facilitators and resources persons would include Entrepreneurs, Bankers, Health workers, Lecturers and Reverend Ministers.

He said during the forum, participants would be given the opportunity to visit manufacturing companies, industrial and mining concerns in the area for them to be acquainted with some of the Ghanaian income generating ventures.

“This will also enable them to gain experience into the management, structures, operations and marketing procedures to help manage their own companies in future,” he said.

To encourage and sustain participants’ interest in the programme, Mr Yeboah said local manufacturers would be engaged to train them in the local work of art to help equip them with some skills that would be profitable even after the programme.

He said as part of a follow-up and evaluation mechanism to assess the impact of the forum, JATI would organize the Student Annual Fair for students to exhibit and market products or services that were ventures undertaken in their various schools.

In addition, he said, JATI had partnered Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, a US based NGO to organize a seven-day entrepreneurial skills workshop for students and link teachers in August.**