The Ghana Library Authority has launched an initiative called Read2Skill, as part of its Year of Learning strategy.

The e-learning project is to enable Ghanaians have the opportunity to undertake courses on the world’s largest open-learning platform Udemy.

The project, supported by the Commonwealth of Learning (CoL), the world’s only inter-governmental organisation solely concerned with the promotion and development of distance education and open learning is offering a full scholarship to 1,000 Ghanaians in its first year through a competitive application process.

The Acting Head of Corporate Affairs of the GhLA, Jemima Ansong, indicated that Ghana was chosen as part of four countries of the Commonwealth to benefit from the partnership. 

The other beneficiary countries include Kenya, Rwanda and Bangladesh. 

“The world’s largest online learning platform, Udemy, has been engaged by the Commonwealth of Learning to collaborate with the Ghana Library Authority to deliver these courses. Udemy has more than 30 million students and 50,000 instructors teaching courses in over 60 languages. Courses available for enrolment by Ghanaians are in the area of Data Science, Cloud Computing, Project Management, IT Operations, Design, Finance and Accounting, Human Resource, Leadership and Management, Office Productivity, Marketing, Sales and others”, she stated.

“As the second-oldest incorporated institution by an Act of Parliament in the country, we have promoted reading and life-long learning for the past 70 years and it is only natural for us to respond to the needs of our society.  Inasmuch as we promote leisure reading, it is incumbent on us to also ensure that our patrons have access to opportunities for self-development to enable them to become attractive on the job market, hence our quest to leverage technology partners to roll out this opportunity for Ghanaians,” said Mr Hayford Siaw, Executive Director of the Ghana Library Authority.

He added: “A few months ago, we released our mobile app on iOS and Android to give an opportunity to Ghanaians to have access to leisure reading contents and the outdooring of this learning platform with CoL and Udemy is in furtherance to the object of our technology strategy to radically connect Ghanaians to knowledge resources.”

The Head of Technology and Innovation at the Ghana Library Authority, Janice Tagoe, also stated: “For decades, libraries have been known as the university for everyone and we are just living by our true existence – that is to be the university for everyone’’.

The Ghana Library Authority opened applications from Monday, 6 January to 31 January 2020 for interested applicants to apply at www.ghanalibrary.org/read2skill.

The 1,000 successful candidates will be offered full scholarships to enrol for their selected courses.