Tertiary schools asked to produce problem-solvers

The Minister of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku- Agyemang, has charged tertiary institutions to be proactive in designing educational programmes that could provide solutions to emerging socio-economic needs at both industrial and societal levels.

“Tertiary institutions would have to put together programmes that critically take into consideration training in the sciences, entrepreneurship and innovation to equip graduates to go into self-employment without necessarily joining the queues for hard-to-get jobs,” she said.

The minister, who made the call in her speech read on her behalf at the fifth graduation ceremony of Academic City College (ACC) in Accra on Friday, believed there was a need for the public and private tertiary institutions to collaborate in advancing systematic training in the sciences, technical skills training and entrepreneurship to revamp the human resource base of the country, as well as aid in improving job creation.

The ceremony, during which the 300 students graduated, had the theme, “Challenges for the youth graduating from tertiary institutions in an emerging global economy.”

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang also advised education planners to form partnerships with industries to ensure quality industrial attachment for students, and ensure that the training provided by the schools addressed the real human resource needs of industry.

In that regard, she assured tertiary institutions of the government’s support in creating a congenial environment for them to operate more effectively for the benefit of the youth.

She commended ACC for the contribution to the development of the education sector, and advised the graduands to utilise the knowledge gained through their respective programmes.

Dr Osei K. Darkwa, President of the Ghana Technology University College, who was the guest speaker, also called for a concerted effort among stakeholders in the education sector to build a solid foundation for quality education.

That, he said, could be achieved by strengthening the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to attain nation building strategies.

Being one of the evolving economies in the world presently, Ghana, he said could use ICT to provide students an effective access to quality education.

He called for educational institutions to design academic programmes aimed at developing the entrepreneurial skills of graduates to meet the demands of the emerging global job trends.

According to him, that would help graduates to meet the demands of the competitive job market and address graduate unemployment.

Dr. Kapil Gupta, Chairman of the Governing Council of ACC announced that the college was planning to build a new campus to ensure the provision of more classroom space and educational facilities to support teaching and learning.