When Ready to Work was launched in 2016, the aim was to give a new direction to the future of young Mozambicans. Today, seven years on, the programme has transformed the way Mozambican youth view entering the job market.
Since the programme began in 2016, more than 11,300 young Mozambicans have been trained. The aim of the initiative is to equip them with strategic tools for the transition from academic life to the professional world, as well as to promote the development of interpersonal skills and build communication abilities and financial, business and professional skills that are essential for starting their careers.
The programme gives young people and young adults in Mozambique aged 16 to 35, who are finishing secondary, technical or university education, the opportunity to be better prepared to enter the job market.
“We know how important it is to offer quality extracurricular training alternatives for young people, and that is why we invest in programmes like this one, in partnership with specialist companies. We believe that, in order to have a more robust and stronger job market with increasingly qualified staff, people need to have the right tools and develop their abilities,” says Tânia Oliveira, Director of Marketing and Corporate Relations at Absa Bank Moçambique.
According to Cripton Baloi, he felt happy and satisfied after taking part in the programme. He says: I learned valuable lessons about preparing for project presentations and, above all, that our future is entirely in our own hands. Our attitudes and actions are the main determinants of our success.
“Is your axe sharp?” That was how we were introduced to the magnificent Ready to Work training we had with the mentors Nilton Comiche and Matilde Barreiros Cardoso, of FlowGroup Mozambique, promoted by Absa Bank Moçambique. The story of the sharpened axe is about a man who broke a record held for generations: his family always cut the same number of trees, but he decided to skip that task for a day so that he could sharpen his axe; from then on, the number of trees they cut increased. This helps us understand that it is important to break away from routine, seek out new knowledge and improve ourselves so that we can reach new horizons,” shared the young woman Celina Alberto Franque.
Absa Bank, as a bank of People for People, remains committed to training young people because it believes they are the tomorrow not only of Mozambique, but of the entire continent.
