ACADEMIA MUST PARTNER WITH THE INUDSTRY SECTOR TO SOLVE REAL PROBLEMS – GHANATHINK FOUNDATION


Players in Academia have been urged to work in synergy with the Industry sector to address the vast differences between the two. 

This will enable the tertiary institutions train and educate individuals to fit into the job market immediately after school. 

The Director for the Ghana Think Foundation Ato Ulzen-Appiah shared these sentiments at the sidelines of a job seminar dubbed Jobcamp at Wa in the Upper West Region. 

He said “some Universities focus more on the theory than practical and its intentional, I think if they [universities] focus more on producing for the industry, then the problem of hands on experience will be tackled.”

Mr. Ulzen-Appiah entreated stakeholders in the industries to also take advantage of the almost free labour that can be offered by students to solve real problems they may face and give students the hands on experience they need. 

“I think the universities have to give the industries room to do more. An example is when Ruky [one of the panelists] was given a real problem to solve by a company as part of a-six-week training. Why can’t our universities talk to companies around them and have the students solve real problems? A lot of companies don’t have money to do research and developments because it’s costly so why can’t they partner with the universities, have the students do this research for them. The students get to work on real problems, if they do really well the company can even hire them,” he said.

Ghana Think Foundation organizes Jobcamps across the country to have discussions on the creation of jobs, entrepreneurships and networking with major focus on the concerns of the youth. Jobcamp Wa is the 6th of such events to take place.
 
An entrepreneur and the Founder of the Nuoyong Business Empire in the Upper West Region Stephen Mwikarah interacting with the youth at the programme urged them to become resilient and persistent in the search for business and academic success.

“Young People must take their destinies into their own hands; you need to get to a point where you know that as a matter of fact nobody owes you anything. Politicians don’t owe you anything; your parents don’t owe you anything. Your life is your life, you take it, you run with it and you win. If you make mistakes you learn from it; we all made mistakes before getting where we got to. We crawled we tried to walk we fell down, its part of the growing process,” he said.

The Upper West Regional Director of the Youth Authority charged the youth to add value to themselves rather than follow politicians. 

He said in this way, the youth can be better positioned to bargain for things that can bring development to the society they live in. 
Mr Sulemana said “in other countries, politicians are not celebrated; they celebrate people with real talent, people that have been able to make the mark. Is the person a media person, is the person an athlete, is the person a renowned musician? These are people young should want to celebrate and get closer to. In Ghana because of the poverty, young people follow the politicians, at the end of the day they used them and dump them and dump them, which is not good. It is high time we came to cherish people with real talent.”

Jobcamp Wa brought together heads of some governmental and non-governmental organisations, youth groups and students.


Credit: Mark Smith

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