Entry: Josephine Dadzie, World Cocoa Foundation

As part of their training, students of the WCF Agric Logistics Skill Development Program have been undergoing Internships with program partners, ADM, Safmarine and Cocobod since January in their respective offices/ depots in Kumasi, Ghana.

The WCF Agric Logistics Skill Development Program is a certificate program designed to equip post-secondary Ghanaian youth with sufficient knowledge in logistics, transportation, supply chain, warehousing, information technologies, and other skills to help qualify them for employment as logistics/warehousing technicians, especially in the cocoa industry. Participants are specifically selected from cocoa growing areas.

In an interview with the students, they expressed how important these internships have been to their entire training tagging it ‘an eye-opener’. They are very pleased with the hands-on effect being added to the informative classroom training and field trips taken in the early stages of the course. Some specifics have been the field use of Webpro and JDE software amongst other pertinent logistics and supply chain tools as well as marketing and human relations skills. Thanks to the Partners for being so warm to the students; they have good stories about the staff they have been in contact with.

Participants interviewed indicated that the program has given them new paradigms. This has been to the extent that some have moved from selling car tires and being internet café attendants to a decision to take-on a degree course in Logistics & Supply Chain Management. They now see themselves as professionals.

The program has certainly turned lives of the youth involved around, a very rewarding way to give back to the people from whose households come cocoa.