{"id":118273,"date":"2015-05-22T06:56:30","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T06:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=118273"},"modified":"2015-05-22T06:56:30","modified_gmt":"2015-05-22T06:56:30","slug":"microsoft-and-iicd-join-ghanas-unemployment-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/05\/microsoft-and-iicd-join-ghanas-unemployment-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft and IICD join Ghana\u2019s unemployment fight \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Software giant, Microsoft and non-profit foundation, International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) have joined forces to to tackle Ghana\u2019s unemployment crisis with the launch of an online employment and entrepreurship platform christened, \u2018TizaaWorks\u2019.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">[contextly_sidebar id=&#8221;2q0AOPHjtoGXMoxXpgxZllqyAnZnSvYR&#8221;]The platform, which is national in scope, aims to equip young graduates and school leavers with the right hard and soft skills to bridge the skills gap.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Legal and Corporate Affairs at Microsoft, Brad Smith, the platform can \u201cserve as a bridge, connecting young people to tools, resources, and people they need to find the fulfilling careers they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The World Bank estimates that 65% of Ghanaian youth are currently unemployed. With data from the Gallup World Poll indicating that African governments currenlty employ\u00a0 only around 14 million people aged between 15 and 29, the situation appears dire.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dark-Suburb-Edits-15.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-118275\" src=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dark-Suburb-Edits-15.jpg\" alt=\"Dark Suburb Edits-15\" width=\"768\" height=\"512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dark-Suburb-Edits-15.jpg 768w, https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dark-Suburb-Edits-15-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Deputy Director of the Office for English Speaking West Africa at the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Dennis Zulu suggested in an interview, \u201ca lot of African countries, Ghana inclusive have very big informal economies and a lot of the young people look at the informal economy for jobs because they cannot get a formal job.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe current pace of employment in Africa is insufficient to meet to the demands of a growing youth population.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to Brad Smith however, Microsoft and its partners remain positive that the \u2018TizaaWorks\u2019 project \u201cwill make a real difference, in a positive way, for the lives of tens of thousands of youth across Ghana.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWith TizaaWorks we have an opportunity not to solve every problem; no single tool, no single company, no single partnership can solve problem, but I do believe it creates an opportunity to make a difference in solving an important part of this problem.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe at Microsoft are very excited about it for two reasons. First, it uses technology on new ways, and that\u2019s what we do\u2026 we really regard our mission as a company, to as being one of empowering everyone person in every organisation on the planet to achieve more and so if we think about it in that way TizzaWorks is a great example of technology that can empower people to go out and achieve more in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On her part, Ghana Country Manager\u00a0of the International Institute for Communication and Development, Martine Koopman indicated that the TizaaWorks platform offers any young person in Ghana the opportunity to access information and services enabling them to become employable.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ghana\u2019s Deputy Communications Minister, Ato Sarpong also pointed out the project was coming at an ideal time as government has just inaugurated the Eastern corridor fibre optic backbone project in the Volta regional town of Ho.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The 800km-long fibre optic project runs through 27 districts and municipalities in the Upper East, Northern and Volta regions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Minister said he was optimistic that the \u2018TizaaWorks Project\u2019 will go support government\u2019s aims of championing youth employability and development in the country.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the final analysis, Microsoft will assess the project\u2019s success using two main metrics; \u201cnumber of people who use the site and the number of people who find jobs by using the site,\u201d according to Brad Smith.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">TizaaWorks is a national platform for youth in Ghana to access relevant services for employability and entrepreneurship, including career planning, online courses, support for entrepreneurs, open job vacancies, and information about relevant on-the-ground activities and youth centres.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8211;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Philip Kofi Ashon<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Software giant, Microsoft and non-profit foundation, International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) have joined forces to to tackle Ghana\u2019s unemployment crisis with the launch of an online employment and entrepreurship platform christened, \u2018TizaaWorks\u2019. [contextly_sidebar id=&#8221;2q0AOPHjtoGXMoxXpgxZllqyAnZnSvYR&#8221;]The platform, which is national in scope, aims to equip young graduates and school leavers with the right hard and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":118275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[18,38],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Microsoft and IICD join Ghana\u2019s unemployment fight \u00a0 - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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[contextly_sidebar id=&#8221;2q0AOPHjtoGXMoxXpgxZllqyAnZnSvYR&#8221;]The platform, which is national in scope, aims to equip young graduates and school leavers with the right hard and [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/05\/microsoft-and-iicd-join-ghanas-unemployment-fight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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