Bold, beautiful and elegant Ms Gyan

Graduate unemployment is a major headache for govern­ments globally with Ghana not singled out of the equation.

Career decisions usually lead to a state of uncertainty, considering the fact that the so-called white-collar jobs (the most reason young people attain certain qualifications) are ei­ther not available or being contested by hundreds.

In a bid to assist young people in finding the right career path and not join the long queue of anxiously wait­ing unemployed graduates, Ms An­toinette Gyan, with her outfit Araba Africa, is gradually carving a niche as the pathway to employment.

Antoinette Gyan is an epitome of beauty and brains. The Career Coach and Communications Consultant has for the past years mapped the career path for young people, ensuring that they choose the right courses and essentially gain employment after school.

Ms Gyan,holds a Master’s degree in Communication Studies and a Bache­lor’s Degree in English and Psychology both from the University of Ghana, Legon. She is also an accredited Public Relations Professional and a Certified Coach from Transforma­tion Academy, an online training institution that specialises in pro­viding personal development and life coaching training.

‘Araba Africa’ is a brand name she got from her paternal grand­mother, Araba, whom she was named after. Granny was a thriving woman, ambitious and joyful; virtues which remains Ms Gyan’s wishes for every woman.

With her tag line ‘Live Beautifully,’ she provides coaching for mid-career African female professionals stuck in their careers. She also provides tools that help them to build mental acumen, with relevant skills such as leadership, com­munication and networking as well as a career plan that would help them to ad­vance and take up leader­ship roles.

Ms Gyan started her coaching career in 2020 with a blog for young people called ‘Young Smart Africa’ in a bid to share insight with young people to have self- leadership and a mindset of success.

What she does, has pro­vided many individuals with clarity in their careers, improved their confidence in communication, built empowering mindset, landed them their dream jobs and built their career vision.

She is currently working as a Com­munications Consultant (on a writing assignment) with the United Nations Volunteer office in Amman, Jordan.

In previous roles, she worked as Communications Officer (adolescent and youth engagement) for UNICEF Ghana, then Communica­tions Manager for Plan International Sierra Leone and Communi­cations Specialist for Plan International Ghana. She also took up other jobs in marketing, arts and crafts as well as teach­ing in the past.

With her experience on the job market, she believes that young people require guidance in choosing a career.

In her view, many young people have found themselves in careers that they don’t enjoy; perhaps they might have gone in for the wrong reasons and with little guidance.

Essentially, she believes that perfect career selection requires several elements including career vision, values, skills, education and goals.

“People think your career starts when you start working, however, it starts when you choose your course of study. Another important thing to know is that your career is ev­er-evolving. A career path should not feel like a death sentence that you cannot make a change once you start on a certain path. If I have to give one advice, I would say look at your best skills to determine your career path. Your skills and talents are your cues,” she advised.

“Information is key. Any opportuni­ty to provide information that trans­forms lives and careers is what I do. My hope is that young people are able to make informed decisions along their career path,” she said.

She shared her insight on entre­preneurship, describing it as an inter­esting path that is not for everyone, hence, the need to guide people who feels entrepreneurship is the solution to their personal transformation.

Despite making a huge mark with her profession, it has not been without challenges with her concern being the lack of urgency from young people.

Ms Gyan is usually surprised by people’s conviction to take a certain path, achieve a particular goal yet not willing to do what is required to get to the top of it. People’s lack of willingness to get what they truly want is a major challenge.

To help provide more perspec­tive about choosing a career path, she launched her book ‘Odd Numbers: Building a Meaningful Career’ in June this year.

In the three-part book, she shares intimately with readers her internal monologues on career development, dealing with fear and getting stuck among others.

Part one and two focuses on ca­reer planning course, with part three on blogs she wrote since the Covid-19 outbreak in 2019.

This book has been described as a healing book, which allows readers for the first time to come to terms with the everyday challenges of ca­reer development.

She advised young people to grab copies of the book to gain informa­tion on career development to make well-informed decisions and prepare a career plan that would help them grow.

Her hobbies include reading, dancing, yoga and interior design and she is focused on holding the hands of the upcoming generation to choose the right careers to gain employment after graduating from school.

 By Michael D. Abayateye