The Ghana National Petroleum Commission (GNPC) Foundation has organised a career fair at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) to give students the opportunity to explore career opportunities and to prepare them for the job market.

The fair, which was part of the foundation’s initiative on education and training development, was held with support from the Consolidated Bank and the Republic Bank on the theme: “Strategic positioning for the job market” and attracted hundreds of students.

Facilitators, which included the university, corporate organisations and business organisations, gave presentations on topics such as “Identifying your Career”, “Design Thinking for Positive Change in Career Development,” “CV writing”, “Emotional Intelligence”, and “Financial Management”.

In an opening address, the Executive Director of the GNPC foundation, Dr Dominic Kwesi Duah, observed that in a world where jobs were limited, it was essential that young people strategically positioned themselves to take advantage of the opportunities around.

He said the foundation was looking forward to engaging with some institutions in every region to help prepare students for the job market even before they graduated.

He said the first career fair by the foundation was held at the Takoradi Technical University and added that this UCC career fair was the second edition of several others held across the country.

Social responsibility

Dr Duah said GNPC had been socially responsible through its foundation, saying it had impacted the lives of many Ghanaians with social intervention programmes and many initiatives and skills improvement themes.

He said the foundation had completed infrastructure projects across five regions in Ghana which were Central, Ashanti,  Bono, Eastern and Greater Accra Region.

The Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, added that students must value their personality and readjust in relation to the kind of courses they were reading in order to meet companies and various institutions standards and expectations.

He stressed that companies and institutions did not so much value certificates anymore but rather the personalities of employees saying it was, therefore, necessary that students adjusted themselves to meet the standard of their preferred courses and companies.

 “Companies and individuals are interested in quality of personality because it is human beings that transform institutions and not certificates,” he stated.

The Group Chief Executive Officer of Business Lens Ghana Limited and Bab Forum Global, Dr Fidel Owusu-Agyei, who gave a presentation on identifying your career, said students should know and understand empathy, that is the ability to understand people from their perspective and be equal with people in life.

He urged students to know themselves and capabilities to help them make the right choices.

Participants

In an interview, one of the participants, who is also a GNPC scholarship beneficiary, Portia Asamoah, said the training had been more impactful saying the job market was looking for more than a certificate.

Another participant, John Pinkrah, also said the fair had been educative and expressed the hope that the GNPC foundation would organise the career fair annually.

There was also a mini products fair which had exhibitors displaying jewelery, apparels, handicrafts and beverages.

There were also insurance providers, banks and government agencies.

SOURCE: GraphicOnline