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Prof. Domwini Dabire Kuupole, the former Vice Chancellor, University of Cape Coast has bemoaned the graduate unemployment situation in the country stating that the situation keeps on worsening year after year.

“The bitter truth is that, many of the graduates from our tertiary institutions struggle to find jobs after national service and the situation keeps worsening year after year” Prof. Kuupole noted.

He made the observation in a speech he delivered at the 10th Congregation of the Presbyterian University College, Ghana, on the theme “Graduate Unemployment: Education For What?”.

Prof. Kuupole said education should aim at giving the young people the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will help to build society and ensure sustainable development of the nation. But he noted with regret that the national tertiary education policy has remained out of step with time.

The former Vice Chancellor of UCC posited that many of our educational training institutions focus mainly on providing knowledge to the students without adequate provision for practical training of what they learn in their books.

He believes that the problem can be addressed adequately if the government and management of tertiary institutions work closely with the private sector to promote internships, graduate trainee programmes, and community-based projects that create jobs for young people.

Prof. Kuupole also called for entrepreneurship to be a mandatory experience for all students and critical starter packs or soft loans from Banks with state guarantee made available, as a measure to effectively deal with the graduate unemployment phenomenon.

According to him many of the young people in our tertiary institutions have very wonderful business ideas and if they are provided with the right nurturing and sensitization by way of academic training in entrepreneurial development, they can easily set up their own businesses after school and succeed.

“Ghana Needs Citizens of Integrity”

Addressing the graduands, Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the Chancellor of the Presbyterian University College, Ghana (PUCG) implored them to be honest and focus on hard work with the desire to make a mark for the good of Ghana and humanity wherever they find themselves.

The Chancellor said Ghana needs citizens of integrity to become middle income nation. “… in our quest to become a middle income nation and to sustain such a level of development, the nation will need well-skilled and morally upright citizens. We need citizens of integrity”, he argued.

Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey appealed to the graduands not to let the Church, their family and the nation down by failing to demonstrate a high sense of hard work and discipline.

He believes having gone through the traditional Presbyterian training which focuses on training the Hand, the Heart and the Head, the graduands are equipped to excel on the job market if the enabling environment is created by the government.

The Chancellor therefore called on the government to create the enabling environment and initiate policies which would encourage those who want to open their own businesses to be able to do so.

The man of God recommended to the University to consider making religion a required course for every student who enters the University so that interested students could earn Certificates or Diplomas in Religious Studies and related subjects alongside the core programmes they are reading.

This would not only benefit the University itself but would also help shape the moral character of our nation greatly.

“It is to this end that the offer of additional programmes in this University that provide entrepreneurial skills which help in the training of the Head, the Heart and the Hand deserve high commendation” the Chancellor said.