Tech Job Fair is a great opportunity to find or change to a new job, learn from the best experts in the IT & digital industry, and network with peers. It provides the avenue to understand the needs and expectations of all stakeholders and development partners of Ghana concerned in creating opportunities related to jobs and the future of work. This among other reasons, the Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana (IIPGH), and its supporting industry partner, DigiCAP.gh, organized this year’s Tech Job Fair (TJF2022), highlighting opportunities for meaningful jobs in a digital economy, through required skills to access these opportunities, and effective interventions to develop these skills.
Tech Job Fair (TJF) is an annual event that brings together industry players, educators, students, government, and job seekers to understand the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) job roles. The job fair is used to exhibit current ICT-related job openings in various industries and to help other stakeholders to understand the ICT skills needs of employers. This is part of the broader agenda to ensure an enabling environment is created for young people to access decent jobs, so they benefit from the digital transformation agenda of Ghana.
Objectives of the Tech Job Fair
The one-day job fair attracted about 2,000 participants, making up exhibitors, development partners, government officials, ICT professionals, job seekers, educators, students, and the public. Employment agencies exhibit their available roles, while professionals from the industry provide more insight into the job market. Topics discussed included emerging technologies and digital skills required to access jobs in domains such as Ecommerce, Cybersecurity, Digital Privacy, Software Development, Telecommunications, Data Protection, ICT Infrastructure, etc.
The Job Fair was used as a platform to promote local ICT businesses. Over 50 exhibitors, as expected, showcased their products and services, while hiring new employees to join their teams. Jobs and other vacancies from about 100 organizations were displayed for participants to select and discuss details with companies that posted their jobs. Live streaming on social media was made available to online participants. As part of the program, there were seminars and workshops on CV preparation, entrepreneurship, business development, and emerging technologies in high demand.
To promote greater collaborations between industry and academia, the Industry-Academia Tech Dialogue (INDAC-TED), a quarterly symposium of the project, was featured in the Tech Job Fair as an afternoon program. Industry players used the platform to discuss jobs.
The Event
This year’s Tech Job Fair (TJF2022) took place at the Accra International Conference Center on 24th February 2022, themed, Connecting Your Tech Skills with The Right Businesses in the Fast-Growing ICT Sector. This event took a blended approach, online and in-person, hosting close to two thousand participants. The blended approach was to provide the opportunity for those who could not show up physically to connect from their various locations via YouTube or Facebook. The event was also streamed live on Citi FM. This was a much-improved event from last year, which could only happen online due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its related restrictions.
TJF2022 was in four parts. The exhibition at the foyer of the conference center, which started from 9 am till the end of the program at 4 pm; Parts I, II, and III. The event had over 50 companies taking up booths and exhibiting their jobs, products, and services, and offered opportunities for event participants to have varied discussions related to these organizations. These companies also had the opportunity to engage peer organizations, network, and find related opportunities in the industry.
Part I (Plenary session) of the event began at 10 am with the Executive Director of IIPGH, Mr. David Gowu, giving the opening remarks, followed by a brief presentation on ICT capacity building from the IIPGH perspective, done by the Operations Director of the Institute, Richard Kafui Amanfu. Other speakers for the session included Prof. Dr. Dr. Ulrich Hemel, Board Member, AFOS Foundation, and Federal Chairman, Association of Catholic Entrepreneurs Germany (BKU), speaking on ICT Capacity Building and Entrepreneurial Development Cooperation. Hilda Nimo-Tieku, CEO, Jobberman Ghana, took her turn to present on Tech Jobs Trends and Skills in demand. She hinted how Artificial Intelligence is applied to recruitment at Jobberman and the reasons today’s job seekers must take a keen interest in developing the right skills and understand the need to create an appreciable CV for the job market.
The HR Manager, GiBT, Angel Wale-Adeyemi discussed Remote Delivery Tech Jobs in Demand, and the Managing Director, WASP Digital, Grant Webber, took over to present on Emerging Technologies. This gave the way to the guest speaker for the event, Mrs. Amma Benneh-Amponsah, Chief Human Resource Officer, MTN Ghana, who presented on the theme, Connecting Your Tech Skills with The Right Businesses in the Fast-Growing ICT Sector.
Mr. Prince Sefah, CEO, Ghana Investment for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), presented Highlights of Jobs in Ghana’s ICT Sector, and the President, Academic City University College (Board Chair, IIPGH), was duly present to give his remarks.
Part II (Midday session) was a breakout session where participants filled up in separate rooms discussing Tech Skills Development, Tech Entrepreneurship, and Tech Careers & Soft Skills, with experts from diverse domains of ICT.
Participants reconvened at the main hall for Part III (afternoon session) of the Tech Job Fair. This was the 3rd edition of IIPGH Industry-Academia Tech Dialogue (INDAC-TED) from 2 pm to 4 pm, themed, Critical IT Skills Required to Access Tech Jobs. This session had a brief overview of INDAC-TED and DigiCAP.gh Program, by the Administrative Director, IIPGH, Gifty Mottey, and Project Manager, AFOS Foundation DigiCAP.gh project, Hanna Schlingmann, respectively.
The guest speaker for the INDAC-TED, CEO, Npontu Technologies, Dr. Stephane Nwolley, joined a panel discussion after his insightful presentation, with four panelists namely Prof. Dr. Dr. Ulrich Hemel, Kwame Larnyoh (CEO, Admin Telecom), Muniratu Musah (Senior Engineer, MTN Ghana).
INDAC-TED
The project targets students and facilitators in public tertiary institutions and provides capacity building in practice-oriented ICT qualification programs as add-on measures to promote employment of young people after completion of their tertiary education programs. The University of Cape Coast is the first beneficiary of the DigiCAP.gh project, and as part of its objectives, the project designed a quarterly symposium (INDAC-TED) to create a platform that fosters closer collaboration between industry and academia. This quarterly symposium brings together ICT private sector, industry, and education providers, exchanging information and discussing mutual activities. The INDAC-TED has been established as a knowledge-sharing event for people at a decision-making level in ICT in Ghana.
Conclusion
The Tech Job Fair, as expected, connected employers to prospective job seekers with the requisite skills needed to help grow their businesses. It has been an eyeopener for job seekers to understand the job market in terms of new skills in demand and how to prepare for opportunities in 2022 and beyond.
Organizations with job roles are encouraged to visit the Tech Job Fair portal (www.techjobfairghana.com), which remains an active and ongoing solution to post their jobs on the portal. Similarly, job seekers are also urged to visit the same website to apply for roles available (www.techjobfairghana.com/listings) posted by credible organizations.
IIPGH is a professional association of professionals, students, and businesses in the ICT industry in Ghana. The institute promotes ICT-related capacity-building programs with a strong focus on Digital Skills Development to prepare the youth to access technology jobs, to deploy ICT for innovation and entrepreneurship.
The DigiCAP.gh project is supported by the Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through Sequa gGmbH. AFOS Foundation is responsible for the implementation of this ICT Skills for Business Development Project “DigiCAP.gh”.
AFOS Foundation is a business-oriented, value-based foundation for international development cooperation. Represented in four countries, since 2003, AFOS Foundation promotes economic, social, and environmental development based on Catholic social values. The ICT Skills for Business Development Project (DigiCAP.gh) supports skills development, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with international and local partners in Ghana to create quality skills and employment opportunities for underprivileged individuals. The project is currently in its first phase, which runs from October 2020 until December 2023.
For playback of the event, please visit the links below.
Morning session https://youtu.be/JVoTIBqX9ns
Afternoon session https://youtu.be/I0dBXHN6Gcs
Author: Richard Kafui Amanfu – Director of Operations, Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana
For comments, contact richard.amanfu@iipgh.org or +233244357006
