General News of Friday, 10 January 2014

Source: XYZ

Curricula-Industry gap accounts for graduate unemployment – Awuah

Founder of Ashesi University College, Dr Patrick Awuah, is proposing a change in the educational system at the tertiary and vocational levels.

Dr Awuah says students must be taught adaptive fore-skills to enable them adjust to the job market after school by being innovative.

He was reacting to a recent observation by President John Mahama that gap between the education system and industry is to blame for the growing graduate unemployment in Ghana.

Dr Awuah told XYZ Breakfast Show host Moro Awudu Wednesday that: “I think he is right that there is a bit of a disconnect. It’s not just about what is being taught, but how it is being taught”.

According to him, “students are not encouraged to be creative, or trained to be quantitatively analytical”.

The Ashesi University founder maintained that even though students are awarded degrees at the end of their programmes in school, the job market is usually not accommodative.

He advised training institutions to adopt proactive measures in training their students for the job market.