‘Policy needed to bridge industry, education gap’
A dissemination seminar on research findings on the “Linkages between academia, industry and labour situation in Ghana” has called for a policy to govern the relationship between industry and education institutions on training the right calibre of people for the job market.
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Participants also strongly advocated government’s lead in the effort to build closer links between industries and education institutions to ensure the right skills for social and economic development.
They said internships for students was a critical prong in the effort and that the government had to provide incentives to industry to undertake such tutelage, since internships came with a cost.
The study was undertaken by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Ghana, with the support of Edu Foundation, an Italy-based family-run foundation with a focus on access to tertiary education.
The seminar drew representatives from the University of Ghana, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the University for Development Studies (UDS), Ashesi University College and the Central University.
It also had representatives from supervising institutions of tertiary education in the country, such as the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and the National Council for Tertiary Education.
Highlights
Presenting highlights of the study, a researcher of CDD, Mr Edward Ampratwum, emphasised education as the driving force of any economy.
He pointed out that the demand on tertiary institutions currently was to tailor-make curriculum to suit social and economic needs.
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The research sought views from students and graduates, while also eliciting expert opinion from professionals on the relationship between university education, industry and labour market outcomes in the country.
Highlights of the findings of the study were that more than half of the graduate respondents were unemployed, although some had left school for more than five years, with high proportions of unemployment being observed among graduates of the Arts and General Science courses compared to medical sciences, nursing and administration.
Interesting trends found in the study included the fact that almost half of unemployed graduates (43 per cent) indicated that they would enrol for further education if they did not find employment within six months to one year, from the date of the survey. Thirty-eight per cent of students also mentioned plans to pursue further education if they did not find jobs a year after graduation.
A former president of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Nana Owusu Afari, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Mark Boadu-Aboagye, were unanimous in calling for another research to delve into the reasons why there was no action from the government and policy makers on issues of graduate unemployment that had been raised over the years.
Writer's email: caroline.boateng@graphic.com.gh