UNEMPLOYMENT  has been the bane of Ghana’s development challenge, particularly graduate unemployment.

IT is worrying that after investing life-long savings in educating our young ones, the dividends of our investments are allowed to waste without any plan or policy to put the talents of these resource-rich young ones to useful economic venture.

 HARDLY  a day passes without evidence of fresh graduates combing the streets of our regional capitals searching for non-existent jobs. 

IT is worrying to see the country lose the contribution of this pool of talents.

HOW  can we as a country not have a policy to draw on the talents of these young individuals who have just left the walls of our tertiary institutions?

AT  the time university education came to Ghana, with the founding of the University of Ghana in 1948 to produce graduates, jobs were already awaiting fresh graduates, so the term graduate unemployment was non-existent. 

SAD  to say that in spite of the rising real unemployment levels in the economy, employers in the formal sector continue to throw people out of jobs due to redundancy.

SINCE studies to track unemployed graduates in Ghana have not been consistent, Today Newspaper is calling on government to conduct research on the human resource needs of the country and tailor Ghana’s educational policy towards addressing the findings. 

THROUGH this survey, national skill requirements could be estimated for the next 10 to 20 years in the various sectors.

BUT  this does not also prevent our educational institutions from restructuring and repackaging their academic programmes to reflect the needs of the students they train and the society for which they are trained. 

OF what use is an educational training that denies its participants the ability to function properly in society and to contribute meaningfully to the growth of that society? Tertiary institutions should be supported to produce world-class graduates to help in the development of the country.

OUR proposal is that the content of the courses that are taught in our universities, polytechnics and other institutions of higher learning should be redesigned to enable fresh graduates to set their own enterprises without having to go on job hunting.

THIS  way, we are more likely to produce graduates who will have the ability to provide solutions for societal problems and hence, create employment for themselves.