National Female Pre-Tech Training Of Trainers

The second edition National Female Pre-tech Training Program is expected to kick-start on Monday, 1st March 2021 in 15 innovative hubs across 12 selected regions of Ghana. The training program is a partnership with Ghana Tech Lab as part of the Young Africa Works initiative with Mastercard Foundation, World Bank, Ministry of Communication. The program aims to deliver a free National Pre Tech Training program on Digital Media for women and girls in different regions of Ghana. 

As part of the training deliverables for the commencement of the National Female Pre-Tech program, a Train the Trainer workshop was organized for all implementing hubs across the regions. Soronko Academy in collaboration with Ghana Tech Lab facilitated a three-day workshop on Digital Media and Gender Sensitization and Awareness. This workshop seeks to ensure that all implementing hubs are able to administer a gender-sensitive training course for women and as well discuss best practices in delivering the curriculum for training. The five-day workshop began on 20th February and ended on 24th February 2021. The first two days of the workshop the team for GTL facilitated the training on Digital Marketing and Social Media management tools.

During the third and fourth day of the workshop, the team from Soronko Academy delivered a training session on digital media, graphic design, and phone photography. On day three the hub trainers learned about Digital Media and Graphic Design, Laying emphasis on Graphic Design and its applications. Mrs Leticia took the trainers through Graphic Design Elements, Principles, and the process of Graphic Design. At the end of the training, she gave a task to the trainers to create a design brief using information from a fictional client brief she provided. Mrs. Leticia encouraged them to make their training slides more visually appealing but not too distracting as well.

Following the training on Digital Media, Jerry Aidoo, the Media Officer for Soronko Academy delivered training on Photography and the various career opportunities available for women in the digital media sector. According to him, Photography is simply the process of capturing light with a camera to create an image. The lead trainer advised the hub trainers to be more intentional in highlighting more female photographers in Ghana or Africa when delivering the training to the beneficiaries. He added that this approach would inspire and allow beneficiaries to relate better to the lessons given. The participants later explored the various different types’ photography such as; Landscape, Wildlife, Aerial, Sports/action, Portrait, Architectural, Wedding / Event, and Fashion Photography.

This year’s National Female Pre-Tech training focuses more on phone photography and videography. As such during the workshop, the hub trainers explored the various mobile camera modes and brainstormed the best ways to teach this aspect of the curriculum. Since not all mobile devices can handle the different kinds of phone modes, the team agreed to teach the most basic modes or use other devices to demonstrate the lessons. The lead trainer also delivered a session on Direction, Composition Techniques, and Exposure in photography. The team advised the hub trainers to encourage the beneficiaries to use a combination of models such as products, lights, or props in creating or bringing to life a vision or style in a photograph. The Media Officer for Soronko Academy again delivered training on photo editing and “reasons why you edit”. According to him ‘Photo editing’ is a broad term that involves making enhancements to change the appearance of an image. Editing an image allows the user to process & enhance images and as well gives them a second chance to an image get it right.

During the final day of the workshop, Mrs. Regina Honu, C.E.O of Soronko Academy delivered a training on “Gender Sensitization” and “Deconstructing Gender in design thinking programs”. The aim of the session was to prepare and equip the hub trainers to be more effective when leading and training classes of all women. This session helped participants to better understand the whole concept of Gender and what it entailed. She highlighted the gender quota system currently in Ghana and in the global spaces. Mrs. Regina Honu in her presentation also shared her life experiences as a young woman leading change in bringing more women into the technology and digital spaces. In closing, she encouraged the hub trainers to follow up on the beneficiaries even beyond the training program as this would help us to structure what success will look like at the end of the National Female Pre-Tech Training. 

Mr. Raymond Honu the Chief Creative Officer for Soronko Academy delivered training on phone videography and film techniques. The training session was fun and interactive. The hub trainers were given the opportunity to demonstrate to the participants the various types of shots in videography. Mr. Raymond Honu advised them to adopt this method of teaching to enable the beneficiaries to acquire hands-on skills in shooting.

At the end of the train the trainer workshop the participants had a fun Kahoot quiz on the digital media lessons given. The session ended with closing remarks from the facilitators and a presentation of certificates to the hub trainers for completing the five-day workshop. Overall the workshop was a success and we believe that the trainers are equipped to administer the National Female Pre-Tech Training in their various hubs.