Sector:

From Theory to Practice: How Agile in Africa 2024 and ACN Programs Are Shaping Ghana’s Workforce

  • 14 November 2024
A group of people wearing conference badges enthusiastically raise their hands while participating in an indoor event. They are smiling and appear engaged, with chairs and a projector screen visible in the background.
A large group of diverse people posing for a photo in front of a screen displaying various organizational logos. Most are smiling, with some raising hands or giving thumbs up. They are in a conference room setting with rows of chairs in front.

With over 150 Professional Services Program Participants in Ghana, cutting across career pathways such as Business Development, Program Management, Data Sciences and Finances, the Agile in Africa conference was strategically curated to enable our program participants to learn from renowned Agile coaches and industry leaders, participate in hands-on workshops, network with professionals and build connections in Business Agility, scaling approaches, data and IT. The conference presented case studies of successful Agile implementations in Africa at large and Ghana in particular, in order to drive innovation and continuous improvement in business strategies. This conference served as a prelude to the Sectors premier regional event with ACN program participants.

TheAgile in Africa 2024 Conference was organised by Akaditi Group held in Insitute of Statistics, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) Hall at the University of Ghana, Accra. The theme is “Removing the barriers to critical thinking: Optimizing the flow of value across your organisation”. The conference aimed to enhance the adoption and adaptation of Agile methodologies and Core Agility Practices (CAPs) within the African context by showcasing Business Agility, Scrum methods, Kanban, and Enterprise. For two days, several masterclasses and plenary sessions were conducted that introduced concepts such as Applied Critical Thinking (ACT) and red-teaming. Facilitators emphasized removing barriers to critical thinking and showed how ACT and Red Teaming build adaptability and agility in a VUCA world could help teams tackle challenges and unlock human potential.  Insights were shared on mobilizing community change and agility in local governance with processes such as removing decision-making barriers, validating feedback, experimentation, and building internal capabilities. In the following weeks, we will be following up with leads generated.  

AL for Professional Services Hangout- 25 October 

The Sectors pioneer hangout was attended by 14 ACN program participants comprising ALA/ALU Alumni and Mastercard Foundation Scholars and Alumni. The core of the hangout was to take our program participants through the BUILD and Design Thinking model. BUILD represents Believe, Understand, Invent, Listen, and Deliver and this workshop was facilitated by 2014 ALA Alumni Samantha Atta-Mensah. Invited as the keynote speaker was Eric Nsarkoh, founder of Street Streams, former Head of Business at MTN Ghana, and former Head of Engineering at Stanbic Bank. Eric conducted a deep-dive into “Market opportunities for youths in the Global Digital Economy”. Finally, Dr Vandyck Lomotey, Country Program Director for Generation in Ghana and former Director of Early Career Success at ACN discussed ‘Systems thinking as critical thinking’ as he shared practical steps and responsibilities of cross-functional teams to ensure achievement of organisational goals.   

The hangout presented a unique opportunity for the Professional Services Program Manager Pearl Utuk to showcase career development opportunities that exist within ACN as well as connect with program participants in a way that will impact and increase job placements in the medium to long term.

 

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