The Chaplaincy and the Personality Development Centre (CPDC) of the Presbyterian University College, Ghana (PUCG) has held the 11th annual Leadership Training Seminar (LTS) for all newly elected student leaders in the various campuses of the University.
The theme for this year’s Seminar was “Dare to be Different: Know, be Known by God and make Him Known through Disciplined Leadership”.
The drive for this annual event is to provide quality leadership training for all the newly elected student leaders to be able to assist the Management of the University to run the administration of the various satellite campuses effectively.
To this end it also aims at helping student leaders come out with not only relevant activities towards the goals of the university, but also synchronising all the activities of the various student groups [religious and academic, including the Students Representative Councils (SRC)] for the academic year.
The LTS is also an opportune time to elect executives of the unified SRC for the ensuing academic year from among the campus-level SRCs.
This academic year’s LTS was held at the Okwahu campus of the University, and attracted eighty (80) leaders from Okwahu, Akuapem, Asante-Akyem, Tema and Kumasi campuses.
The students were engaged in series of activities including lectures on related topics, workshops, demonstrations, presentations and discussions.
Some of the topics treated at the Seminar were: Understanding Godly Leadership (Gods way of leadership, knowing how to lead with a godly morality, and Christian leadership qualities and principles); the Roles of Student Leaders in PUCG: performing your role effectively as a leader (godly administrative practices and decisions, rendering secretarial services, other portfolios execution);
Other topics were: Addressing challenges of Collegiality and Cooperation (ground rules for inter and intra group leadership respect and cooperation in the 2018/19 academic year); the Student Leader and Time Management (Essence and principles of time management, balancing student leadership with academics).
The rest were Godly ‘Student Leadership and Planning of Effective Programme (situation analysis; objective setting; choosing activities; identifying resources; budgeting; implementation and evaluation ); Accountability in Godly Leadership (Budget preparation; Fund raising, management recording and financial reporting); and Communication Skills in Godly Leadership (journaling of events; effective writing of reports).’
The success of the programme is suggestive from comments of participants at evaluation such as: ‘This year’s approach made the programme practical, interesting and relevant’, remarked a satisfied participant who had attended the previous one.
Another, an adult student, felt equipped ‘not only for leadership in the university but for my home, workplace and church.’ A third enquired if her ward from another institute ‘could be allowed to participate next year?’ In addition, the quality of campus level synchronised action plans was indicative of participants’ attentiveness.
The following persons served as resource persons for the LTS programme: Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Adow Obeng, Rev. Dr. E.Y. Blasu, Rev. Dr. Martin Bugri Nabor, Rev. Christiana Amarchey, Dr. John Adu Kumi, Dr. Paul Adjei Kwakwa, Mr. Emmanuel Angmor, Mr. Michael Amoah and Mr. Emmanuel Ako-Gyima.