ITES receives grant to train 150 poor youth

Accra, Dec. 30, GNA - The ITES Secretariat of the Ministry of Communication has received an 882,000 dollars grant for the implementation of the ITES/BPO Work Readiness Programme.

It is to train 150 poor and vulnerable youth on work readiness and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) skills and then employ those youth in BPOs to digitise government records.

A statement issued in Accra on Friday said the grant was being made through the Rockefeller Foundation's Poverty Reduction through Information and Digital Employment (PRIDE) Initiative.

PRIDE is working to create employment for poor and vulnerable people in Africa by establishing meaningful jobs in the information technology industry through the fostering and scaling up of a new arm of the outsourcing industry called Impact Sourcing.

The statement said this was an effort that supports the development and testing of Impact Sourcing business models, research around the enabling environment that could catalyse Impact Sourcing to scale and building a coalition of key stakeholders for the industry.

The objective of ITES/BPO Work Readiness Programme is to create impact in the lives of poor and vulnerable youth by enhancing their opportunities for gainful employment in the growing ITES/BPO industry in Ghana.

In addition, the programme would leverage Ghana's interest in eGovernment by demonstrating the benefits of government record digitisation.

The programme would build the capacity of BPOs operating in Ghana by supporting participating companies that meet certain requirements to acquire industry certification, which would help the companies to improve their processes and be more competitive for additional contracts.

GNA