AIT to establish Graduate Entrepreneur Institute

Professor Clement Dzidonu, President of Accra Institute of Technology (AIT), on Saturday said the Institute would establish a Graduate Entrepreneur Institute to recruit, train, mentor and incubate graduates of any discipline from the universities.

He said the mandate of universities must be to produce job creators instead of job seekers and urged public and private universities to initiate programmes that would transform their institutions into leading entrepreneurial universities.

Prof Dzodonu was speaking at the sixth graduation ceremony of AIT which saw 13 students graduating in PhD and 93 in Bachelor degrees.

He urged the universities to respond to calls from industry to produce graduates to drive their organisations in the ever modernising competitive industry and economy.

Prof. Dzidonu said to prepare students for the job market the Institute had introduced Career Development and Employability Studies for all level 200 students.

“The course would prepare and orientate students for the job market and industry by providing them with the requisite job creation and employability skills that have been identified by employers worldwide as crucial for the modern technological-driven economy,” he said.

He said the Institute had entered into partnership with the Ghana News Agency to offer a number of Journalism and Technology programs as a response to industry request.

Prof. Dzidonu urged universities to strike the right balance by carrying out a human resource gap analysis study to assist in graduate output requirement planning and serve as basis for the Government to set quotas for graduate output in key fields and professions.

Prof. Dzidonu said the Institute, in collaboration with the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Ghana Institute of Engineers and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, has initiated the International Research Initiatives Conference (IRIC).

He said the IRIC would be held annually as a research-focused conference for presenting and discussing outputs of on-going research efforts and initiatives of researchers in the universities.

Prof. Dzodonu said the school was running a PhD research work in Engineering, Information Technology, Education and Business Administration.

He urged the students to make the best out of their fields to make a difference in their chosen careers.

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor commended management of the Institute for having the highest number of PhD students in the country and advancing the study of Information and Technology.

He said the study of Technology was critical to socio-economic development because it helped policy to be scientific oriented.

President Kufuor commended the role of private universities in complementing that of public universities to absorb the growing number of students in the country.

He urged the graduates to live an exemplary live and eschew corruption and other social vices that affected the fibre of society.

Professor Francis K.Allotey, Chairman of AIT Board of Trustees, said the Institute’s mission was to become the world class technology-focused teaching and research university offering globally accredited degree programs with state-of-the-art modes of delivery and promoting scholarship, innovation and scientific research.

He said the Institute had established direct affiliation with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the Open University of Malaysia and maintained collaborative relations with top class universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the United States of America.