The institutions are Think3ice and Finex Skills Hub.

The ceremony, which came off on Saturday, December 17, at the University of Ghana, saw 20 young female students graduate after successfully completing a 10-week training programme in Microsoft Excel, Analytics and Python.

Graduating students

Addressing the graduating students, Financial Expert, Robert Nii Kotoku Lartey, advised the young graduates on the need to maintain a learning mindset and continuous hunger for knowledge to better add more value to their individual acquired skills.

“Opportunities like this do not come so easy, but when they do come, take those opportunities to add values that can add to your life.

“People have the qualifications that you have, even more than what you have, but the values you add to yourself out of the opportunities given to you sets you apart from the rest. I can bet you that this certificate lying here is just a paper, the actual certificate is the value you add to yourself,” he said.

“Another thing I would like you to note is that hard work never fails. As I stand here I still learn and would still want to get back to school and learn more in as much as I already have the skills and the position occupied, I can decide to just work with what I have but I still want to earn more because anytime you avail yourself to learn, the value you have today never remains the same so do not see it as the end of it, but rather the beginning,” he added.

Hard work

On her part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Think3ice, Mrs Yvonne Dzotsi, applauded the students for their hard work, consistency, and perseverance throughout the 10-week training.

She noted that the reason for initiating an all- girl training programme was to address the gender imbalance in the data analytics world, as well as present to society, young innovative girls whose skills would contribute significantly to the nation’s growth.

“The reason why I decided to go for all girls is because of the gender imbalance, but also build up ladies who will come up with mind blowing ideas that will help our various communities,” she said.

Out of the 199-students who applied for the training slot, only 20 students made it to the final selection, and that according to Mrs Dzotsi was to enable coaches to adequately train and produce capable and quality students.

She however stated that plans were underway to increase the number of students who will be trained for the second cohort, adding that the graduates will be keenly monitored and updated with learning materials to enhance their knowledge.

Mrs Dzotsi mentioned that her outfit was working on collaborating with other corporate organisations to secure internship slots for already graduated students in order to improve their skills as well as give them hands-on experience in the working environment.

Ever ready

Taking his turn, Lead Facilitator at Finex Skills Hub, Mr Bernard Obeng Boateng, who was the senior trainer for ‘Excel Our Girls’ stressed that Finex Skills Hub was ever ready to help young girls acquire knowledge to grow as well as build connections.

He commended the girls for demonstrating a passion-driven attitude throughout their stay as members of the hub.

He is hopeful that the ‘Excel Our Girls’ programme will make a great impact in the coming years.

“This is the first season, and it is going to outlive all of us. Our prayer is that this becomes an ‘Excel Our Girls’ institution where we train data driven ladies who know how to bring solutions out of just raw data. We have started and subsequent seasons I believe, going to be better.

“The goal has always been to improve the population of girls in the space, because women in data science only represent just a small percentage, so therefore we want to increase that and we want to encourage more girls to take data science as a career because when it comes to data science, it has always been for boys,” he added.