New Year School: Industries urged to conform to modern trends

The Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon, Prof. Gordon Akanzumine Awandare, has urged industries to realign their strategies to conform to emerging trends.

He has also called for more collaboration between industry and academia to help turn the fortunes of the former around.

Prof. Awandare said the assertion that universities were not producing the right materials to feed industry was inaccurate, adding "our students have the brains to turn things around and all that industries need is to invest".

The Pro-V-C was speaking at the 75th annual New Year School at the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, where he moderated a panel discussion on the theme: "Promoting education for sustainable development."

The school, which started on Tuesday, is on the theme: Nurturing resilience: Adopting technology and embracing humanism for sustainable development.”

Capability

The President and Provost of Academic City, Prof. Fred McBagonluri, cited projects students from his university had produced which included turning sustainable materials such as waste products into useful materials.

He called for attachment of psychologists to schools to produce students "intentionally" with a designed purpose "to end up at a planned destination".

Two other discussants, who are Vice Rectors of Tallinn University, Estonia, Prof. Katrin Niglas and Prof. Katrin Saks, also shared their country's experience on how to make education more accessible and exciting.

They called for the establishment of universities with special biases in economics, medicine, science and technology.

Context

There had been calls for collaboration between industry and academia over the years.

While industry had called for tailor-made products from schools of higher learning, academia on the other hand, insists that they are already producing quality graduates, and that the onus lies on industry, and for that matter the private sector to provide funding for a more nuanced approach.

Some of the recent calls came from the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, at the 23rd congregation of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), urging academic institutions to establish stronger ties with industry and the government for the development of the nation.

At another event, a Biomedical engineer and Dean of the School of Engineering Sciences of the University of Ghana, Prof. Elsie Effah Kaufmann, charged industry and academia to collaborate to train the next generation of workers to address prevailing challenges in the world.

“If you leave the universities alone to make our young people ready for the world of work after school, it's not going to happen,” she added.

The Director, Sales and Marketing, Graphic Communications Group Ltd (GCGL), Franklin Sowa, at a programme held at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) recently, also added his voice to the effective collaboration between academia and industry to build capacity of marketing and advertising sector players.

Background

The 2024 Annual New Year School and Conference is focusing on how to leverage technology to ensure sustainable development and nurture resilience.

The school, which has been organised since 1948, is a major platform for academia, industry, policymakers and other stakeholders to deliberate on pertinent issues critical to national development.

In its 74-year journey, the conference has covered critical sectors such as education, health, agriculture, security and economy, and provided enormous knowledge to accelerate national development.