Ghana Tech Lab, an Information. Communication and Technology company, has absorbed into its fold 400 graduates to undertake their national service.
Being the first of its kind, these individuals are to be trained on programming, particularly in web applications and mobile app development.
The Programme, which is an all-year one, will help to prepare the students for an entrepreneurial skills and job creation after their completion.
Dubbed: GTL- NSS GRADUATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP and INNOVATION, all students on the programme, will receive start up support and get their allowances paid in line with the service arrangement.
In an interview with Journalists after the launch of the programme at the National Service Secretariat headquarters in Accra , the Lead for the NSS-Ghana Tech Lab programme. Mr Daniel Owusu, indicated that there are 24 centers for the training across 15 regions of the country.
According to him, the graduates do not have to have an ICT background to be trained, since the lecturers have their hands on impacting Knowledge into the students with little or no ICT background.
He said, this new programme is among others, expected to change the narrative where service personnel are perceived to be used for the running of errands and doing of photocopies.
The other objective of the programme, he explained is to help reduce the narrative about unemployed graduates since the programme equips the service personnel and open them up to start their own businesses.
Started in October this year, applications are opened to students between the ages of 18 and 35.
On his part, the Executive Director of the National Service Scheme, Mr Osei Assibey, expressed enthusiasm about the prospects of the Programme, indicating that the situation where NSS is seen as an entrance and exit agency will change.
With the world revolving around ICT, Mr Assibey, said the opportunities which are being presented to these 400 service personnel will obviously position them for the world of work.
In his view, the success of this first pilot will depend on how well the first batch conduct themselves by coming out of the programme well trained to start their own businesses.
“The training will make you all hot commodities when you graduate because ICT is driving the world now and is a lucrative sector :, he said.
He urged all other students to apply for the programme, in order to reap its benefits after completing.
The Ghana Tech Lab and NSS Entrepreneurship and Innovation programme is supported by the MasterCard Foundation, the Ministry of Communications and the World Bank.