HUMAN RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE AFRICAN SKILLS IN THE POWER SECTOR SOUTH –SOUTH COOPERATION

1. HUMAN RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE AFRICAN SKILLS IN THE POWER SECTORSOUTH –SOUTH COOPERATION BY ALEX AMISSAH GHANA GRID COMPANY LTD. (GRIDCo)

2. OUTLINE • STRATEGIC DIRECTION • SKILLS DEVELOPMENT • INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION • HUMAN CAPITAL • RETENTION OF SKILLED MANPOWER • CONCLUSION • RECOMMENDATIONS

3. STRATEGIC DIRECTION • Need for over-arching and compelling shared African vision • Vision of stake holders to tie into over-arching vision • African power sector blue print desirable for all African power Companies to fit in. - UPDEA well positioned for such an African agenda

4. SKILLS DEVELOPMENT • Difficulty in defining skills • Creation of considerable interest in recent years in idea of competences • Learning and development critical success factors for effective competition of organizations in competitive markets

5. PROCESS FOR UPSKILLING AFRICAN POWER SECTOR • Skills inventories and audits • Training and development Needed – structured training plans for Companies e.g. Scheme of service for GRIDCo - examples of formal devt. Innitiatives: training courses, induction, papers, placement and secondments, job rotation etc.

6. PROCESS FOR UPSKILLING AFRICAN POWER SECTOR (cont.) • Centers of excellence - tasks and activities serving as learning opportunities - Management Challenge: building learning organizations where experimentation, risk taking, application of current technology, tolerance for mistakes, failure, knowledge sharing is cherished. - Knowledge Management therefore significant here

7. PROCESS FOR UPSKILLING AFRICAN POWER SECTOR • Collaboration with educational institutions - Need for stakeholders to collaborate with university and other tertiary institutions to make recommendations with respect to desirable skill sets and competences critical for the power market

8. INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION • South – south - placements and secondments in sister African power companies - learning languages of other developing countries for ease of interaction • North – south - Need to benchmark top of the class power companies in the world - Identification of best practices and adaptation to African approach

9. REVIEW OF TRAINING • Need to evaluate training to determine its effectiveness • Tracking carefully what is done and how it contributes to goals and objectives of power companies essential

10. HUMAN CAPITAL • The collective value of the organization’s intellectual capital (competencies, knowledge, skills). • Owned by individuals who can walk out of the door

11. RETENTION OF DEVELOPED AFRICAN SKILLS • Needful to develop attractive reward systems to attract and retain staff • Managements should institute reward schemes to motivate staff to further improve their skills – you get what you reward • Crafting of superior purposes

12. CONCLUSION • Development of African skills imperative • Needful however to derive strategies to retain the enhanced human capital

13. RECOMMENDATIONS • Well articulated Strategic Direction both at the continental and intra organizational levels needed in African Power Sector. • Inventories and audits of African skills should be undertaken at all levels in the Power sector • International cooperation in the African continent advocated, cooperation with developed world desirable in the light of current international trade and globalization

14. RECOMMENDATIONS (CONT.) • Schemes of service (training plans) laying out well outlined training programs for all stakeholders be structured • Stakeholders should actually implement their training programs and should tie them to their reward systems • Training programs should be reviewed consistently to determine their effectiveness in achieving set goals and objectives

15. RECOMMENDATIONS (Cont.) • Knowledge management should be given serious thought in organizations/companies • Stakeholders should create environment for Companies/organizations to function as centers of excellence where all tasks or activities would be opportunities for learning

16. THANK YOU! END