Collaborate to produce skilled gradutes- Dr Oppong to universities, industry

The Director of Procurement at the Ministry of Transport, Dr William Akoto oppong, has called for a strong partnership between universities and industries to help churn out graduates whose skill-set are aligned to industry requirements.

Such an alignment, he said, would not only enhance the employability of graduates but also enable them to thrive on innovation and competitiveness using research as a tool.

“The current educational system has no link with the Ghanaian industry.

He said that we should not be interested in producing students with just a mere certificates but rather certificates that should be an alignment between academia and the industry and this is what Ghana is lacking,” Dr Oppong said this when he was speaking in Accra last Sunday (August 18) at the inaugural ceremony of  the new Chief and Queen mother of the Asanteman Students Union (ASU) of the University of Ghana.

At the ceremony, a level 400 student, Ebenezer Osei and Akosua Gyamfua Owusu, were enstooled as the new Chief and Queen mother respectively.

Outdated courses
Dr Oppong indicated that there were many courses that were outdated and not relevant to the current industrial demand.
He was of the opinion that most of the  courses in the universities needed to be reviewed to suit the current or contemporary system.

He also encouraged students to do more research about their preferred programmes before they pursue them.
He urged them to study the current market trend to know the course that would be relevant in the current industry.

He said that they should do  programs that will enable them to be easily absorbed by the job market and help cut down the high unemployment rate in the country.

“For example, 2007, the country needed more welders and fabricators for the construct of a gas turbine, but we couldn't get so we had to fall Egypt for those skills due to their non availability come and help us to construct the gas turbine.  He said that our degrees should be geared towards technical education and technology,” Dr Oppong said.