The Young Professionals and Youth Coalition (YPYC) has started Masterclass mentorship programme at the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, (KNUST).

The transformational leadership training programme is an authentically practical leadership development platform for young mentees and highly experienced mentors from various industries to engage.

The programme dubbed: “Mentors- Mentees Workshop” is aimed at nurturing generational leaders to drive Ghana and Africa’s development agenda.

Mr Andy Okrah, Founder and President, YPYC, in a release, said the programme sought to help rewrite Africa’s leadership and development narrative through the training and grooming of transformational leaders for communities, institutions and nations starting from Ghana.

He said “the journey, which we started about 13 years ago is already yielding results hence we are encouraged to do more”.

“The Programme will assemble renowned professionals from various industries who are committed to the transformational agenda to engage with young students leaders and others and train them adequately with well prepared modules using the Masterclass innovation, ”he said.

Mr Okrah said leading mentors expected to participate in the maiden edition were professionals who were already impacting the next generation of leaders and were excited to through YPYC’s leadership training innovation expand the frontiers of their efforts to help transform Ghana and Africa.

“This is our newest addition to the YPYC’s annual Transform Summit and Role Models Awards and related transformational leadership events. And, we intend to start it at KNUST and take it to the rest of the country and continent at a realistic speed.”

He noted that at KNUST alone, they were targeting over 10,000 students out of which, about 50 percent of mentee participants shall be retained for further grooming after the main events.

He explained that the choice of KNUST was more about its place in the nurturing of leaders in Ghana and Africa and the readiness of the University to commence the innovative programme.

“The College has over 20,000 students of which about 20 percent are expected to benefit from in-person and virtual sessions after which, 50 percent of participants who excel shall be adopted by the mentors for further training.”

Professor Ben K. Banful, Provost, CANR, said “this programme perfectly fits in our leadership development agenda hence we are excited about it and hoping to make the best of the opportunity.”

Other colleges of the University shall have their sessions after, which organisers shall take the innovation to other tertiary institutions across Ghana and Africa.