AGI blasts academia over high unemployment rate

The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has taken a swipe at academia blaming them for the

high employment rate in Ghana.

According to the AGI, Ghana is challenged with the requisite skilled, professional and competent

labour force for the fasting growing and changing industry.

Employment growth in Ghana has plunged over the year raising concerns about the quality of

Ghana’s growth.

Ghana’s employment growth lags behind economic growth, with an estimated

employment elasticity of output of 0.47.

Industry players are blaming this to the quality of graduates churned out from the country’s

tertiary institutions.

Speaking at the CEO’s breakfast and British Council Skills Hub Launch, the President of the

AGI, James Asare Adjei disclosed that due to lack of skilled workforce, a lot of Ghanaian

Industries are hiring from India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia among others.

“You have young graduates who are looking for employment and they say they can’t find jobs

but we have employers in industry who also say they have so many vacancies they cannot fill

them.

The question is how do we reconcile the two and ensure the gaps are filled by

foreigners.

I think what we can do is the businesses themselves trying to work with academic institutions to give the needed capacity building to the young graduates to fit needs of industry.”

He therefore called on academia to employ lecturers who are in touch with industry happenings to allow them churn out better graduates prepared for the market.

Meanwhile the Vice President Paa Kwasi Amissah Arthur who was the guest of honor at the launch called for adoption to deal with lack of skilled workforce to promote national

development.

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