The Chancellor of Baldwin University College, Dr. Akwasi Achampong, has urged students to pursue programmes which will enable them to be self-employed, a development he believes would reduce the level of graduate unemployment in the country.

According to him, there are numerous job opportunities in the country and urged graduates to be innovative and start something on their own rather than waiting for the government and other institutions to employ them.

Addressing the press during the second matriculation of the school, Dr. Achampong pleaded with universities to train the students to be self-motivated to start up a business.

“It is the teachings and the beginning of their tertiary education because it is what we teach them that sticks in their minds. If we keep telling or training them to work for the government, then when they are done they will sit and wait for the government to employ them”, he said.

He continued that, “when we tell them at the beginning to start something on their own, then they will graduate and start something on their own.”

Dr. Achampong further urged graduates to seize every opportunity they get to start their businesses irrespective of how small it is.

“Most of our graduates want to work in the public sector or wait for somebody to employ them but they should know that we have a lot of job opportunities, especially in our rural areas, where they can start their career,” he said.

In order to train the students to be innovative, Dr. Achampong added that his school is determined to give their students the right training to be different from their counterparts elsewhere.

“Our core mandate is to train students who can actually think for themselves, and analyse issues to come out with solutions to some problems in the society. We want to push them to be innovators because that is how the world is going now,” he said.

He continued that, “We believe that science and technology provide the key to our development as a nation.”

In an interview with the DAILY HERITAGE during the event, Dr. Daniel Amaning Danquah, Acting Deputy Registrar, Operations of the Pharmacy Council, reiterated the need for academia to focus on the possibility of being innovative.

He expressed the view that students have a lot of confidence in academia, hence the need to be empowered.

“If the people training you are not encouraging and empowering you or giving you hope, then it will take a few or bold students to go out of the shell to do something on their own,” he told the paper.

Dr. Danquah further called for a paradigm shift in the education and training in our tertiary institution, saying, “Looking at the challenges of the country today as against the days of Kwame Nkrumah, then there must be a change in the system.”

“During those days, there were a lot of job opportunities without the requisite manpower and so during those days our universities were training to fill up those vacancies; now that is not the situation.

“That paradigm must now change to a case where universities will be in the frontline of directing, encouraging, mentoring, and empowering their students to look at opportunities in the society,” he stated.

Source: Daily Heritage, Ghana