NaBCo: Over 10,000 graduates interviewed on first day

Managers of Nation Builders’ Corps (NaBCo) say over 10,000 graduates who applied to join the scheme were interviewed on the first day.

A total of 127,000 applicants successfully booked interview appointments and are being interviewed in all districts from July 18 to 25, 2018.

The interviews enter the third day today.

Although 146,968 applied to join NaBCo, about 16,000 duplicates were identified and deleted from the system.

This reduced the number of successful applications to a little over 130,000.

Out of this number, 127,000 succeeded in booking interview appointments.

This means that some 3,000 applicants failed to book interview appointments for reasons NaBCo could not immediately fathom.

The NaBCo programme is a government initiative to address graduate unemployment to solve social problems.

The focus of the initiative will be solving public service delivery in health, education, agriculture, technology, governance and drive revenue mobilisation and collection.

Under the programme, graduates will be trained, equipped with the necessary work tools and deployed around the country to join Educate Ghana, Heal Ghana, Feed Ghana, Revenue Ghana, Digitise Ghana, Civic Ghana and Enterprise Ghana.

Membership of interview panel

In every district, a panel of five will consist of a representative of the district assembly, a member of the NaBCo Secretariat, an official from National Service Secretariat, a representative from a module implementation partner, and a representative from the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.

Orientation for the selected 100,000 would take place at the district level from July 30 to August 3, 2018.

Passing-out ceremony

A passing-out ceremony would be organised at regional locations.

Placement of recruits

From Monday, August 6, 2018, NaBCo trainees will commence placement on their modules.

Orientation

Once successful applicants submit their letters to the district of placement, they will be processed to commence a five-day orientation.

In all districts, the dates for NaBCo Orientation are from July 30 to August 3, 2018.

This shall include a military component on resilience, endurance, positive attitude, discipline and responsibility.



Passing-out ceremony

Once orientation is over, the successful trainees will all converge at their respective regional capital for a passing-out ceremony.

From August 6, 2018, trainees are expected to commence their placement in their chosen module within the organisations and enterprises they have been placed.

Each trainee will be given a three-year contract under a work and learning arrangement.

For every four weeks of work, one week will be dedicated to skills development and training.

This results in a cumulative 12-week worth of core training, in addition to the on-the-job training every year.

Education pathway for beneficiaries

NaBCo is working with Module Implementing Partners (MIPs), accreditation institutions and universities to design an exit certification award that becomes recognised as a pathway for beneficiaries to further their education at higher levels, as well as facilitate employment.

This means that while gaining experience, beneficiaries also gain credit hours that could exempt them from agreed number of years when they want to further their education.

Additionally, those who seek employment after exiting the programme stand the chance to be placed at higher grade levels above the grade levels they would have been placed with the qualification they enrolled into NaBCo.

Partner skills training institutions would standardise the training in order to determine the exit certification.

MoU with partner universities

NaBCo will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with partner universities that will offer credit hours exemption to beneficiaries for further education.

Gender breakdown

Females constitute 55,964, representing 38.22%, while 90,454, representing 61.78%, are males.

Breakdown of type of qualification of NaBCo applicants.

Out of the 146,968 applicants who successfully completed and submitted their applications, 54,012, representing 36.75%, are degree holders; 66,616, representing 45.33%, hold diploma while 26,340 applicants, representing 17.92%, are certificate holders.

Educate Ghana attracted highest application

Educate Ghana topped the applications with 43,834, representing 30.202%.

It is followed by Revenue Ghana, with 31,095, representing 21.425% of all applications.

The others are Civic Ghana - 19,917 (13.723%); Digitise Ghana - 16,620 (11.451%); Enterprise Ghana - 12,949 (8.922%); Heal Ghana - 11,785 (8.120%); and Feed Ghana - 8,934 (6.156%).

Regional breakdown of applications

The regional breakdown of applications include Ashanti - 34,909 (24.05%); Greater Accra - 31,809 (21.92); Northern - 19,807 (13.65%); Brong Ahafo - 12,248 (8.44%); and Central - 11,139 (7.68%).

The rest are Eastern Region - 11,039 (7.61%); Western - 10,070 (6.94%); Volta - 5,347 (3.68%); Upper East - 4,756 (3.28%); and Upper West - 4,000 (2.76%).