Focus ICT training on job creation – Communiqué

The 65th Annual New Year School and Conference has ended with a call on government to concentrate on training the youth on how to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to create, subscribe and search for jobs online.

“Information and Communication Technology capacity building programmes for the youth should be organised at the district levels…with emphasis on how to use ICT to create jobs, subscribe to jobs and search for jobs online,” a 12-point communiqué issued at the end of the conference said.

It said companies, institutions, organisations and departments should be encouraged to advertise job openings on designated government job websites.

The communiqué referred to the 2014 theme which was “Information and Communication Technology-driven Education for Sustainable Human Development: Challenges and Prospects,” and said, “it is relevant to current needs.”

It charged the Ministries of Communications and Education, the National Commission on Civic Education and the Information Services Department to spearhead the process and intensify awareness creation on ICT applications at all levels of national life.

It also asked the Ministry of Education to review ICT in Education Policy in close consultation with teachers and relevant stakeholders.

It further pressed the Ministry to strengthen ICT education curriculum of Colleges of Education and training institutions implementing the National ICT Policy on Education.

The communiqué said universities in Ghana ought to provide courses online and promote ICT usage among students and lecturers, adding: “teachers should be exposed to modern ways of teaching,” using ICT techniques to impart relevant skills to students.

Minutes before the communiqué was issued, the University of Ghana announced that it had introduced Masters Degree Programmes in E-learning and Distance Education, one of its kind in the country.

Participants welcomed the announcement, but further called for the establishment of e-learning centres at the local levels to train both adults and the young and expand internet connectivity to remote areas.

The communiqué encouraged government to pursue vigorously, the policy of providing reliable power supply to all parts of the nation and support institutions engaged in the development of local content software programmes, particularly, in local languages.

A total of 174 participants attended the New Year School and Conference organised by the Institute of Continuing and Distance Education, University of Ghana.

The Institute intends to focus on ICT and National Development for the next five years to drive the transformation of key sectors of the nation.

University authorities said the move was to ensure that Ghana’s vision on ICT for Accelerated Development was achieved.