By Albert Futukpor
Tamale, Aug 01, GNA – Some female professionals in the digital field have shared their life experiences with Girls-in-ICT Programme participants, to encourage them to be meticulous and aspire for careers in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) space.
The female professionals, who were drawn from organisations including Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission, National Communications Authority, National Cyber Security Centre, Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) Ghana, AT Network amongst others, focused on leadership skills, time management, career choices especially in ICT, social etiquette amongst others.
The event formed part of the Mentorship Day organised by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, for basic schoolgirls in the Northern Region, who were beneficiaries of the Girls-in-ICT Programme.
It was to equip the participants with basic ICT skills such as the creation of websites, computer games and animation stories using Scratch.
A total of 1,000 girls, drawn from basic schools from all the 16 districts in the region, benefited from the Girls-in-ICT Programme.
Miss Hamdaratu Zakaria, the Executive Secretary of the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission, sharing her story with the girls, said she came from a humble background and became who she was today by dent of hard work and perseverance.
“I am one of you and you can also make it, especially in this era when you, unlike when we were young, even have access to ICT tools,” she said.
Ms Nancy Assor Asiedu-Amrado, Head of Brands and Communications at Airtel Ghana Ltd (AT) encouraged the girls to have a strong mentality focusing on what they wanted to achieve and become in future, to make dreams come into fruition.
She advised them to create their own timetables and religiously keep to them to learn on their own after school to achieve higher laurels.
She further encouraged them to be disciplined and it would help them to achieve excellence in whatever they pursued.
Madam Mariama Mahama, the Principal of Dabokpa Technical Institute, said “making it in life does not matter where you come from,” but it was about focus and hard work and encouraged the girls to be determined to achieve success.
She advised them to plan their lives to enable them to overcome obstacles as well as have industry professionals as mentors, to guide them to make it in life.
Ms Vivian Apode, a Teller with MTN Ghana, who spoke on “Quality Sleep,” said the benefits of having quality, deep uninterrupted sleep was key for the restoration of the body, saying “As human beings, we need to have at least seven to nine hours of sleep.”
She said as students, they needed to pay attention in class and quality sleep would help them in that regard as they would not be sleeping the next day in class.
“Before your dreams and aspirations can come true, it will also come from learning and paying attention. Dreams cannot be achieved when you are sleeping in class.”
She advised them “To stop or minimise their use of social media platforms, because when it becomes addictive, you can stay up to mid-night.”
Ms Abenaa Antwiwa Adusei, a Certified Etiquette Consultant, and Founder of Manners on Point School of Etiquette, who led an etiquette session on “Social Etiquette and Manners,” educated the girls on how to keep their bodies and observe right manners in society, advising them to do away with bad manners to remain acceptable in society.
She laid emphasis on when and where to display proper manners, to make them attractive and socially acceptable to people wherever they found themselves.
GNA