‘‘Catch them young and train them now’’

Why We Do What We Do

THE SOCIAL PROBLEM & CHALLENGE

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a compulsory subject under the Ghana Education Service (GES) curriculum, yet most schools in Winneba and its environs have no computers in their schools – Most students learn in theory. The few schools that have computers have no electricity supply and cannot access the Internet. There is no adequate storage or security in the schools for safe-keeping of the computers, so the few old computers are kept away from the children as a measure of damage control.

Most schools have no trained ICT teachers. Arkcity-Link-Foundation came up with the idea of free ICT competency based training skills to help train the children and young people. Almost all ICT training institution in the country cost money.

Most young people in Winneba and the regions are struggling with everyday life thus are unable to pay huge amounts of money to obtain IT knowledge at the various ICT Institutions.

INTER-SCHOOL COMPETITIONS

We organize an ICT Quiz competition for Junior High School and ICT Spelling Bee Competition (Terminologies and Acronyms) for Primary Schools every quarter, subject to the availability of resources to fund the project. We are looking for sponsors who will be willing to partner with us, to make this event as consistent as possible on our yearly calendar.

INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS

We run inspiring and interactive workshops to develop leadership, entrepreneurial and vocational skills. The Quiz competitions enable us to assess the level of interest, progress, knowledge and skill acquisition. They have become an effective scheme for motivating young people into ICT learning and also act as monitoring and evaluation tool to keep the energy of our initiative focused.

The Foundation also strives to provide prizes ranging from desktop computers, pendrives, exercise books etc. to competing schools to adequately motivate them to be part of the competition.

TEACHING / TRAINING

Professionals teach and play key role in creating awareness and stimulating interest in the young people. The Foundation also train adults who have not completed their formal education or dropped out of school (school dropouts) to try building their confidence and getting them back to the classroom to complete their education or train them in IT Skills.

One of the characteristics of the Arkcity Training Centre is that of its friendly and cordial atmosphere, devoid of stress and intimidation. This provides the best environment to learn and nurture potential, ensuring that children in communities receive quality education through the use of ICT to become independent and useful to society.

The Foundation can only continue to provide such enriching programs through help/support in cash or kind. Receiving support will help us continue with the work started. It will help us attain our vision of reaching many more children and young people.

ICT ROAD SHOW

 ‘‘Catch them young and train them now’’

The Arkcity Link Foundation ICT Road Show has been developed to raise ICT awareness within the Rural Communities for the effective use of ICTs in Education, Business and Social Development.

The Foundation seeks to work collaboratively with other interested organizations and institutions that share our vision to deliver a program designed to educate and demonstrate the transformative power of innovation.The program, dubbed ‘‘catch them young and train them now’’, takes the form of series of community visits across the communities and neighboring villages that is designed to foster a spirit of innovation in the development of ICT based practical solutions, to raise awareness and to encourage harmonization of efforts in the adoption of ICT solutions for inclusive economic and social development. A whole community will eventually be educated.

The theme, ICT AWARENESS & SENSITIZATION FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES is reflective of the objectives we are working hard to achieve.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION

Monitoring and evaluation constitutes one of the ideals of the Foundation to ensure that the opportunities opened to the people in these areas and the resources provided match and are not wasted.

The routine monitoring and evaluation enable re-strategizing for effective use of the Foundation’s resources and the impact made on people who pass through the facility.The evaluation will include both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods.  The activities include periodic review of syllabi, interviewing of children, young people, teachers, parents and the community.

REHABILITATION OF SCHOOL DROPOUTS

One of the most satisfying ongoing projects that we have embarked upon in Arkcity Link Foundation, is the rehabilitation of youth who had for different reasons dropped out of the formal education system, and found themselves at risk of facing a future without education or potential for gainful employment.

 

We have had reasonable success stories of identifying, training and rehabilitating a few of such youth, by helping them to return to the classroom through our mentoring and youth development training programmes.

 

Our plan for them in the future, is to be able to have a purpose-built facility as the operational centre for the project, to enable us to reach and cater to the vast number of such young people who will benefit greatly from the programme.

SCHOOL ZONING

Circuits

 

Schools in Winneba are grouped in three circuits: East, West and Central. Each circuit has 16 schools. Most of the classes have extensions so there are many schools in Winneba and its environs and a large number of school going age children and young people in the communities, who can potentially be impacted by, and benefit from our programmes.

Free Courses

From time to time, we organise free ICT courses to give students taster sessions of the learning resources that are available for them. Please contact us for more details.

Premium Courses

We also have tailor made premium courses that we can design to meet specific needs of groups or schools that want to have a structured learning module.

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