Prof. Charity Akotia, Dean School of Social Sciences

Administrative, clerical and library staff in the junior and senior ranks at the School of Social Sciences have attended a half-day workshop organized by the School on Sharpening Skills for Effective Administrative Support. The staff were drawn from the six departments of the School, namely, Departments of Economics, Geography and Resource Development, Political Science, Psychology, Social Work and Sociology.

In her welcome remarks, the Dean of the School, Professor Charity Sylvia Akotia, stated that the workshop was in line with Strategic Goal 4 of the School’s Strategic Plan that focusses on people, that is, academic and non-academic staff of the School. She indicated that the School has been organizing such training workshops with a view to ensuring a more efficient and effective service delivery from the staff. She, therefore, urged the participants to view this training as another opportunity to add on to their existing skills.

The Resource Persons at the workshop were the School Administrator, Ms. Mavis Oye Addotey, the School Administrator of the School of Languages, Mr. Worlanyo N. Torvinyo and the Human Resource Officer at the College of Humanities, Mr. Ransford Yeboah-Badu.

Ms. Mavis Addotey, School Administrator

In her presentation titled Sharpening Skills for Effective Administrative Support 1, Ms. Addotey referred to the significant and indispensable role played by senior level as well as support administrative staff in the School and the University in general, especially towards the realization of the University’s “World-Class Research-Intensive” vision. She stated that if administrators fail in ensuring that the procedures and processes for the smooth running of the University are duly carried out, this may eventually result in the failure of the University as a whole. She, therefore stressed the need for administrators to sharpen their skills and do their work well in order to be relevant to the University’s business.

Ms. Addotey’s presentation also covered the need for periodic self-evaluation as well as an improvement in interpersonal communication in order to ensure an effective communication process that is void of ambiguity and misunderstanding. Ms. Addotey also stressed the need for staff to develop and improve their organizational skills in order to ensure an effective work output in spite of the pile of work they may be confronted with.

Mr. Torvinyo took the participants through the nitty-gritties of official internal and external correspondence, minute-taking and preparation of agenda as well as papers required for the submission of various applications by academic staff from the departments to the Office of the Dean. In his presentation titled Sharpening Skills for Effective Administrative Support 2, Mr. Torvinyo stated that the name of the University of Ghana is held in high esteem by its external publics. He, therefore, urged staff to, as much as possible, ensure that errors in written communication with the University’s external publics are reduced to the barest minimum. Mr. Torvinyo ended his presentation with a practical dummy 15-minute meeting on the agenda: “Factors impeding the progress of Administrative/Clerical and Library Staff”.

Mr. W. N. Torvinyo, School Administrator, School of Languages

The dummy meeting was chaired by Ms. Addotey and involved a representative each from the six departments, and with Mr. Torvinyo in attendance. It was an interactive session that afforded some junior and senior staff the opportunity to learn the skill of minute-taking.

Mr. Yeboah-Badu made a presentation on Conditions of Service and Related Human Resource Issues at the University of Ghana. His presentation covered the requirements for registration of the dependants as well as concession for admission, staff entitled leave and medical care, promotion and disciplinary issues. He stressed the need for staff to always ensure that details of their personal data as well as those of their dependants are duly captured in the University’s ITS. He explained that this would ensure the smooth processing of their claims without delay.

Mr. Ransford Yeboah-Badu, Human Resource Officer, College of Humanities

The interactive and practical training workshop was an overall success.

Question Time

Ms. Catherine A. Adjei, Principal Administrative Assistant at the Dean’s Office was the MC for the programme.

Group Picture of Dean, Resource Persons and Staff.

Please click here for more pictures of the event