Call for national dialogue for partnership between universities and industry
The President of the Ghana Baptist University College, Prof. Joseph Oteng- Adjei, has called for a national stakeholder dialogue on the relevance of private tertiary instructions to the industry in reducing unemployment in Ghana.
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He said the current infrastructural and financial challenges were compelling such institutions to follow the traditional methods of training students without deviating to meet current trends.
According to him, global trends indicate that if private tertiary institutions do not adapt and refocus to meet international trends, they will collapse.
Occasion
Prof. Oteng-Adjei, made the call during the 14th Congregation of the Ghana Baptist University College in Kumasi themed: "Skills Development for Job Creation: Options for the University Graduate".
Some 420 students including more than 100 females graduated in various programmes after four years.
He said his concerns stemmed from the long-standing growing numbers of graduate unemployment in the country.
Flexibility
Prof. Oteng-Adjei proposed a meeting with the regulators to give private tertiary institutions some flexibility that will enable them to take risks to pursue programmes that will be the game changers.
He said beyond all these, there was the need to increase student confidence and train them in the art of public speaking.
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Indeed, he noted that some graduates were very good academically but lack the confidence to articulate their views.
Guest
The guest speaker, the co-founder of the International Community Schools, Dr. Charles Yeboah, insisted that the current economic situation could not be entirely blamed on unemployment, but on the mismatch of skills by graduates from universities.
He said the mismatch between academia and industry remained a concern and a major cause of graduate unemployment which continued to threaten national development.
"There is, however, a persistent call for both public and private tertiary institutions to rethink and adapt to the needs of the industry as a way of addressing the teeming graduate unemployment in the country," he said.
"When universities and other tertiary institutions open their portals for admissions there is always a rush by applicants to secure a space. The qualified ones are admitted at the end of the day to start their academic journeys to secure a decent and well-paid job after completion.
"But that is not always the case as most graduates are still struggling to find jobs although others are venturing to other areas to establish themselves".