Weeks after the first batch of Nation Builders Corps (NABCo) trainees finished the three-year program, the young graduates question what would happen to them when they return home.
Some have labeled the initiative as a vote-buying plan designed to ‘deceive’ participants into voting for the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Peter Bismark, Executive Director of the Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI), for example, said that the initiative was hurried for the sake of the campaign since it lacked a framework and an exit strategy.
Addressing the concerns, Dr. Ibrahim Anyars, National Coordinator of NABCO, stressed that the three-year program was not a waste of time, adding that certain accommodations had been made for graduate trainees.
“President Akufo-Addo in considering the plights of graduates who were unemployed initiated this program. Three years on, we have young confident graduates who have their dignity rescued and their security for a period of time to decide what their career plan will be, others who came in with low levels of qualification all got to improve upon them.”
He also explained the program’s exit strategy for those who benefited from it.
“If you ask the 68,000 who have completed the process, they will tell you that in the very final year of the programme, we took them through the CPTP i.e. the Career Pathway Transition Process and that is what has given us the about 68,000 number we have now.”
“The CPTP required that the graduate trainees indicate an exit profile indicating their career interests. Some of them chose permanent employment in the public sector, others opted for entrepreneurship and career-focused learning.”
“As a responsible government, President Akufo-Addo has ensured that over the period, NABCo trainees have been prioritised in recruitment, and we have over 49,000 in employment.”
“NABCo is in phases, the three years they did is the enrichment programme, the next is the Module Implementation Partners (MIP) who are the employment providers and so every one of them who exited on the 31st October 2021 received a message from us notifying them of an opportunity to join the exit preparation portal where the MIPs will come in.”
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo started the NABCo program in 2018 with the goal of hiring 100,000 unemployed graduates.
The program has seven components that are aimed to fulfill the nation’s urgent requirements while also creating employment for the teeming youth who have acquired university education but are unable to find work.
The recipients were employed for three years and received a monthly stipend of GH700 each.
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