69th Annual New Year School to focus on job creation - Prof. Tagoe

The 69th Annual New Year School and Conference which has been launched in Accra hopes to create a platform to help find a lasting solution to Ghana’s growing unemployment rate.

According to the Acting Provost of the College of Education of the University of Ghana, the theme for next year’s New Year school is a significant shift from the School’s themes in the last five years which has focused on ICT and other sectors of the economy such as education, health, governance and agriculture.

Prof. Michael Tagoe said this is the right time to set the agenda for discussions on creating an enabling environment for the private sector to become the engine of growth in the country hence the theme for the 69th Annual New Year School and Conference, “Job Creation for Accelerated National Development: The role of the Private Sector” and.

He stated that “the decision for this year’s theme stems from the fact that in the last 11-months the government has job creation its clarion call and has identified the private sector growth as a vehicle of job creation”.

“One of the major objectives of the Annual New Year School and Conference is to create a platform for a dispassionate discussion of issues of national concern. We as a school cannot ignore this important national issue and effort by the present and earlier governments to address the challenge of unemployment in the country,” he added.

He called on policymakers and private sector players to be part of the 69th Annual New Year School and Conference which will take place from the 15th to 19th of January 2018.

Provost for the School of Humanities, Prof Samuel Agyei-Mensah noted that the private sector has a very important role to play in job creation hence the need to empower the sector adding that the theme for the 2018 New Year School and Conference is very timely.

“This year’s theme which focuses on private sector development and job creation for national development is extremely apt and timely and clearly reflects the direction to which the nation wants to go,” he said.

He added that “the task of creating jobs cannot be the sole responsibility of government. Indeed, it’s now well acknowledged by developing researchers and practitioners that the thriving private sector is critical for job creation”.