National Service Personnel Trained On Project Management, Leadership Skills

A day's Project Management and Leadership skills training for National Service personnel in the Kumasi Metropolis has ended, with a call on the government to create the needed funds to build the capacity of the scheme, in order to sustain itself.

The President of the Christian Service University College (CSUC), Prof. Samuel Afrane, who made the call, said youth and graduate unemployment was a national security problem, and called for a system that would facilitate a smooth transition from national service to permanent employment.

Speaking on the topic " National Service: The Link between Tertiary Education and the Job Market", Prof. Afrane also suggested that national service-user organisations were made to contribute to the fund, depending on the number of service personnel they received each service year, to sustain the fund, thereby making the scheme subvented, rather than the meagre allowances paid to the service personnel.

He said the service period was the time for the graduates to prepare themselves for the future, and advised that they develop employable skills and good work ethics, such as taking initiatives, reading, analytical thinking, and understudying their superiors.

Prof. Afrane regretted the situation where college graduates joined associations like the "Unemployed Graduates Association", and advised the NSS to carve a positive public image for itself.

A resource person, Mr. Godwin Adu-Afful, said until people considered project management as a serious subject, the tendency to exceed project sums in large excesses will never end.

Mr. Adu-Afful, who is also a project management consultant and Executive Director of Eduwaynes Project Management Consult (EPMC), advised the personnel to develop problem solving, analytical, good communication and leadership skills, as these were what most employers looked for.

The President of the Kumasi Metro National Service Personnel Association (ASPA), Mr. Stephen Andura, lamented the situation where user-organisations used and dumped service personnel at the end of their service year.

He said this was so, because the user-agencies were sure of another batch of personnel soon thereafter, adding that the project management training enabled them to understand the dynamics of today's business environment, and what employers looked for.

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