The Bible says in Hosea 4:6 that my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.
As a ministry, we have over the years prioritized the transiting of fresh graduates from tertiary institutions to the working industry, entrepreneurship, and further studies. In line with this, there has always been a 3-day residential seminar every year where we bring together fresh graduates to receive first-hand knowledge from different industry experts. This year, even though the workshop was for only one day, it was very successful and impactful.
The first session was a presentation by Mr. Addy Siaw Amoako from Lead Partner Spring Consult, who formerly worked as a Recruiter and CV Expert with Jobberman Ghana Ltd. The topic was Mastering Your CV for Career Start. The speaker established the importance of a CV as the first impression any employer forms of a prospective employee. Building on that foundation, he walked the participants through the essential elements of a good CV, emphasizing the need for brevity, describing one’s achievement over responsibilities in work experience, and the appeal of a CV tailored to a specific role or job description. Participants were taught how to identify and describe their relevant hard and soft skills and to make sure that references corroborated any achievements mentioned.
Furthermore, the speaker took the attendees through key considerations of formatting a CV, namely, consistency, chronological ordering, conciseness, and clarity. The speaker advised the use of action-oriented language and professional speech at all times. In addition, the speaker also explained the use of a cover letter to complement a CV to make up for lacking work experience or explain gaps in employment/education history. After his presentation, the speaker gave the participants the opportunity to evaluate two sample CVs to identify strengths and weaknesses.
The second session was handled by Mr. Charles Antwi, a veteran lawyer and owner of Bethel Dental Clinic, on work ethics. After a short interaction with participants on what they understood by the word “work,” he went ahead and espoused the reason why a Christian must work. Drawing from Genesis 1-2 and Colossians 3:18-25, he explained that God commanded man to work just as he, God, worked. He added that work is serious business and requires serious consideration, whether in appearance, prayer, or attitude. All work is ultimately in service to God, not men. He also explained in detail the critical qualities for work such as; Discipline (self-mastery to ensure that what is necessary is done well in good time), Professionalism (a due regard for how a worker presents themselves at their employment and represents that employment to others), Integrity (the conviction to uphold truth and virtuous standards), Teamwork (the willingness to work with and for others without pride or selfish regard), & Accountability (the readiness to own up to errors and fault). Mr. Charles ended by referencing Romans 12:2, reminding participants that proper Christian work ethics are rooted in following Jesus Christ rather than running with the standards and conventions of the world.
After a hearty lunch, another session on Personal Development was led by Mr. Ken Dawson, a lawyer and certified fraud examiner in the telecommunications industry. Mr. Dawson explained personal development as a conscious process of improving and growing oneself. The process requires taking responsibility for your growth, subject to God’s leading. In recent times, personal development for the employee requires formalizing coaching/mentoring and a choice to earn the trust & investment of employers. He also explained various areas of personal development: Mental (improving knowledge and critical thinking), Social (growing communication skills, interpersonal relationships, and professional contacts), Spiritual (maturing in the Word & Prayer, loving under the Lordship of Christ), Physical (controlling diet and weight, monitoring physical health, adopting habits that promote longevity and health), Career (developing and implementing SMART goals for professional growth). The Speaker added that a key part of personal development is financial literacy and encouraged participants to utilize diverse sources of funding for growth.
The final session was a talk on Understanding Entrepreneurship & How to Build a Sustainable Business by Isaac Sesi, founder of Sesi Technologies. Mr. Sesi described entrepreneurship as the process of creating, organizing, and running a new business for profit while taking risks. The key importance of entrepreneurship by the speaker is that it empowers a person to shape their career and future. Sharing his own experience of becoming an entrepreneur right after national service, Mr. Sesi described the necessary qualities of an entrepreneur as vision, purpose, adaptability, risk-taking, networking, and passion. In addition, he explained the process of identifying & capitalizing on opportunities for entrepreneurship as involving market research, problem-solving, validation of generated solutions, and competitor analysis. The key is to identify a problem people are willing to pay to receive a solution. An entrepreneur creates such a solution and then through feedback from early adopters progressively improves it until it becomes competitive in the general market. The speaker ended his message by encouraging those looking for funding for their businesses to not shy away from talking to people to raise funds despite the fear of rejection. “Who did NO kill? Nobody” were his ending words.
A special thank you to all our resource persons, and everyone who supported to make this program fruitful this year. God bless!
