Accra, Jan. 24, GNA - Ghana and the United Kingdom (UK) have started a programme where qualified personnel would work in the financial, maritime and business services in the City of London and to use the experience gained to better serve in their home country. The goal is to make available to UK's international partners the professional skills that have been an essential underpinning to the City of London's success as the world's leading international finance business centre.

Mr Alderman John Stuttard, Lord Mayor of the City of London, said at a press conference on Wednesday that the project, under the banner; "City of London- City of Learning'' was to promote the financial, maritime and business services of both countries.

He said a huge part of UK's economic success was based on young people coming to London from other regions of the UK and abroad to work in those sectors to learn and gain experience for a short period of time.

Also included in the project was a partnership between the University of Ghana and University of East London, which would develop and set up higher education institutions career services for Ghanaian graduates.

The partnership between the two universities would enable them to share best practice from the City of London and to foster development and capacity building in the education sector in Ghana. Mr Stuttard said the one year programme would help the University of Ghana to develop an on-campus university based careers service of international excellence that could be replicated at other higher educational institutions.

He said over 200,000 foreign nationals worked in the financial sector and that professional skills that were hallmarked, 93Made in the UK" were very valuable to aspiring young people around the world because they offered a career boost that was hard to beat. The campaign involved 50 professional institutes, key university business schools and training providers that offered post-graduate and professional qualifications in financial, maritime and business services in the UK and overseas.

It covers 13 sectors including Accountancy; Actuarial Science; Asset Management; Banking; Dispute Resolution; English for Financial Services; Management, Law and Marketing.

Mr Stuttard said those who would not get the opportunity to learn at the City of London could go through the distance learning programmes for professional qualifications to which Ghana was an important market. Dr Bruce Banoeng-Yakubu, Dean of Students of the University of Ghana, said 7,000 students were churned out into the job market yearly with the Counselling and Placement Centre training about 120 students. He said the project would help to improve on their counselling activities and be a bridge between academia and industry as well as serve as a synergy to propel the young graduates with the appropriate skills for the job market.