World ORT and Coconut Grove Beach Resort with support from the Nduom Library has trained 43 girls from low-income families in Elmina on ICT and online learning.
This to thrive through high-quality teaching and training, giving them the best possible chances of employment.
Backed by a UNESCO grant, the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics courses (STEM) project, the girls, who typically lack access to such technology, were given greater opportunities and encouraged to use tablet devices to take after-school and weekend courses in graphic design, game design, coding, video editing and academic subjects including Math and Science.
At a graduation ceremony to climax a 6-month intensive training, General Manager of Coconut Grove Beach Resort, Victor Opoku Mintasaidthe focus of the training was to equip young girls with basic ICT skills to make them agents of development who will continue to educate other children in the communities.
Mr. Opoku Minta said it was motivating to have young Ghanaian women champion the change in ensuring gender balance in the digital space. According to him, the current generation has been exposed to greater opportunities to advance in the field.
He said the Nduom group and World ORT will continue to champion the training of the Girls in ICT initiative to whip up the interest of girls in acquiring ICT skills and also enhance their opportunities as they develop careers in the ICT industry to make them competitive on the job market.
He urged the graduands to put to good use the knowledge acquired and be innovative in finding solutions after identifying challenges.
Speaking to ATL FM NEWS at the sidelines of the ceremony, the lead facilitator for the programme, Kwesi Amissah said the idea to train the girls was to demystify the notion of IT being for only boys and break the fear of mathematics in the girls.
“We decided to reach out to these little girls and put in them the confidence that they need so that as they go forward, they will see Mathematics, Science and ICT as ordinary subjects.
The project which started with 16 girls and later grew in numbers is an initiative which seeks to whip up the interest of young girls to pursue technology and engineering courses to enable them have access to jobs in the digital space as Ghana strives to advance digital technology.
Source: Anthony Sasu Ayisadu/ATLFMNEWS
