’Train youth to solve problems here and not wait for international companies to hire them’ - Prof. Kaufmann

The Dean of the School of Engineering Sciences, Professor Elsie Effah Kaufmann has encouraged STEM institutions to train students to be problem solvers.

According to her, this will encourage students to not wait to get recognition from foreign organizations after training, but they would rather use their skills to help their communities.

“If we are waiting for everything to line up perfectly before we start, we will never start anything. And the training that we are giving them has to be towards a purpose.

“So if you take models from elsewhere, especially the models of these developing countries - There are companies available, you get trained, they employ you … that same model may not work in our environment since we don’t have the industries.

“We need to combine the training we are giving them to be able to identify and understand problems and some entrepreneurial skills so that they can solve problems here without waiting for a big international company before they apply their skills,” she said during the launch of GVI Ghana’s ‘Empower Tech’ initiative.

Commending GVI Ghana for helping and giving free access to STEM education to some young students in rural communities, she said:

“I think it’s a very good step in the right direction because listening to the presentations from people that live and work in the community; how they outlined the problems that the young ladies and even the men are experiencing, it’s a concern.

“We can’t continue having this going on without doing anything about it. What I’ve been made to understand is that they have been in this community for a while, they have identified the problem, and are bringing in interventions to address some of the problems we hear about today,” she stressed.