Soul Food College Trains 760 Students In ICT

By Bernice Bessey
Africa is often tagged to be lagging behind development and to address some of these challenging issues especially in Ghana, Soul Food ICT College, a Ghanaian-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Accra, has organized a free computer training for 760 students to acquire skills to better their lives.

The three months' ICT training marked the 15th in five years and about 10,625 youths have successfully graduated in various ICT disciplines.

Soul Food ICT College assisted the students to acquire knowledge and certificate in computer hardware, networking, Window 2003 Server, Window 2008 Server, Cisco Certificate Network Administration (CCNA), Linux SLED, Novel Netware, SQL, System Analysis and Design.

Pastor Eddie Letsa, who doubles as Director of Soul Food ICT College and the General Overseer of Ministries International, said courses including configuration and mobile phone repairs would be added.

“These courses offered freely by Soul Food Ministries International are offered by various institutions within the country at quite enormous sums; the decision of the  church to offer these courses for free is to contribute to the development of the youth as well as help build a better country for us all,” he said.

Pastor Letsa, who said these at the graduation of the first set of graduands for 2016, indicated that 'The Free for All ICT Training' is non-denominational and non-religious bias programme which educates and equips students in various information-technology programmes.

The pastor, in an interview with the media later, said though some youths have diverted their ICT knowledge into fraudulent practices, it should not deter others from using it for a productive cause.

He explained that since the inception of the world, the devil has always manipulated people to act against good ideas that are intended to improve livelihoods, adding that internet scams are part of the devil's social vices.

The world, he noted, was transforming faster than ever and Africa must not be left out of this digital transition. The General Overseer cautioned the public against scammers and urged them to scrutinize and report suspicious messages to the police.

He also took the opportunity to advise the youths especially to stay away from fraudulent activities that could jeopardize their future. To continue providing free tuition destitute in society, he requested philanthropists, NGOs, ICT focused organisations, corporate Ghana and individuals to support their cause to enable them train more of the youth. That way, he said the youth would become self-employed, thereby forestalling the increase in social vices.