Introduce courses that will make graduates ready for the job market - NaCCA boss to universities

The Director General of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Prof. Edward Appiah has urged the various tertiary institutions to make sure they design courses that would prepare students very well into the system to cut unemployment rate.

According to Prof Edward Appiah, it was high time all tertiary institutions started to be innovative enough and introduce courses that will make their students ready for the job market so that they do not graduate to become burdens on the society.

Prof. Edward Appiah who was delivering a speech as the guest speaker at the 8th congregation of the Christ Apostolic University College (CAUC) revealed that the only means through which we can accelerate our economy is when we are able to create the right manpower.

He said that will also base on the kind of human resource we build through the educational system. This will in turn cut the unemployment rate in the country.

The university's 8th congregation which was themed; "Revamping The Educational System To Address Unemployment And Accelerated Economic Development", was seeking to address the unemployment challenges that bedevil Ghanaian graduates after school.

Touching on the theme, the guest speaker suggested that the kind of courses we design and the knowledge we impart to people should be able to ready them for the job market.

"The situation will be worse if they complete the school and fail to secure jobs or are unable to create. This is why we are urging the tertiary institutions to make sure the programmes they offer will meet the 21st century aspirations", he said.

According to him, one can only do that when he or she has an education activity that meets the needs of the nation. He said for a tertiary institution to build such resourceful human brand for the nation, foundations of such students are very crucial, hence, the need to draw a curriculum that could fit in that regard. By so doing, the NaCCA director general said that is why there are some changes in the curriculum at the basic and the secondary levels.

He added: "Now, we all bear witness that the Christ Apostolic University is eight years, and before someone comes to a tertiary institution, there is a foundation. They are built from pre-tertiary or secondary schools. This means, when there is a poor foundation, it may automatically affect the tertiary level. Because of this, you can see that in Ghana we have moved into different curriculum. We are using standard based curriculum which allows the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering Mathematics (STEM)".

He further explained that his reason for proposing such initiative is to help achieve a gross enrollment ratio, meaning, the country is going to get enough competent human resource to build the nation that we all want.

He said: "Gross enrollment ratio meaning, out of every 100 people there must be a majority of them who are competent enough to work".

Expressing worry over how most private tertiary institutions offer same courses to compete with their mentor institutions, the NaCCA director general urged that it was high time these private institutions start to introduce new courses that will be a 21st century oriented. He said, when that is done, it will help increase their enrollment tally and also prepare graduates from the tertiary institutions with quality skills.

"One thing that is very worrying is that, most of these private institutions now offer same courses as their mentor institutions. This makes them more or less move the same direction with their mentor institutions they are competing with in terms of enrollment which I think is not the best. We are therefore having talks with the Ghana tertiary education commission so that there may be some changes.

"It is very advisable that these private institutions come together to push for an agenda that will make them develop programmes which will be 21st century oriented but must not necessarily compete with their mentor institutions. When you have same courses with your mentor public institutions, it means they will automatically take away all the enrollment because their school is popular than yours", he explained.

For his part, president of the university, Prof. Clement Baah Somuah disclosed that 262 students made up of 150 bachelor degrees, 77 diplomas and 35 certificate holders graduated on the day.

According to him, the university's vision was to help contribute towards the capacity building of human capital in the country by preparing, through integrated, specialised Christian- based academic programme, a community of devout, well grounded scholars with talents and expertise that will garner national and international recognition.

Touching on the school's achievement, the president disclosed that the university has been able to produce graduates in diverse ways, who now contribute their quota to the development of the economy.

According to him, the school's enrollment which suffered decrease during the Covid- 19 era, is now experiencing some growth after the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Most of the students who were at the same time, working for some companies lost their jobs due to the covid-19 pandemic. They had to drop out of the school because they could no longer afford to pay the school fees. But now, we can say that the number is appreciating, thus after the covid-19 pandemic", he shared.

He revealed that management of the university have put things in place to ensure that the Christ Apostolic University College which has an enrollment of about 800 students, is increased to at least 2500. He added that the school had also planned to add courses like nursing and midwifery to the already existing courses.