Ghana Labour College holds graduation ceremony

Ghana Labour College in conjunction with the University of Cape Coast (UCC) on Friday held a graduation ceremony in Accra with a call on students to use the knowledge acquired to transform their work places.

Sixteen students who enrolled in a one year certificate course in Labour Studies for the 2014/2015 academic year came out successfully.

Professor Francis Eric Amuaquandah, Dean of Social Sciences, University of Cape Coast, who made the call, urged them to translate the knowledge into theory and come out with innovative ideas to move their work places forward.

“You should be objective, factual in your daily work and you must allow dialogue to be your guide,” adding that, much would be expected from them and urged them to continue learning and apply the knowledge to fix problems.

“The knowledge acquired is necessary but not sufficient and you must continue to learn more to make yourselves abreast with the changing dynamism around your work, “he said.

He announced that the University in collaboration with the Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) is working out a Masters in Labour Studies, to equip unionists to be more competitive in the global market.

In a speech read for him, Dr Patrick K. Agbesinyale, Director of Institute of Development Studies (IDS-UCC), said workers and their representatives must identify the various challenges posed as a result of changing environment if they are to advance their goals, social principles and standards which trade unions pride themselves in.

He said as public institution with responsibility for inculcating values for nation building, ”our role in helping trade unions pursue their cardinal values was something that we deemed very relevant as we also kept our social, moral, intellectual and religious values within sight.

Talking on challenges facing the programme, Dr Agbesinyale said beyond the major challenge of funds, the concern has been how to properly locate the programmes for them to be relevant to workplace and the society at large.

“it is a misinformation that the programmes are only for unionists and that there is no career prospects outside the Unions. We believe that the content provides invaluable material and critical reasoning for participants to identify their potential for other career possibilities.

“Currently the University through the IDS, is reviewing the curricula to reflect the dynamics of the times so that at any point in time industry will benefit from the programmes ,” he said, and urged industry employers to show interest and explore the possibility of supporting their workers to take advantage of that golden opportunity to train their staff.

Dr Anthony Yaw Baah, Deputy Secretary General of GTUC, congratulated the graduates for their resolve to go back to school and learn.

“It is not easy …It is very difficult to study, especially at your age,” he said and encourage them the put the experience gathered to good use.

He said the GTUC is aware of the challenges facing the college and was trying to fix them to enhance teaching and learning.

“As a short term measure, we are planning to get the college a generator and also refurbish the infrastructure at the college to make students comfortable to study. In the medium to long term, we are discussing with stakeholders to put up a permanent infrastructure to benefit workers in Accra and those working in the Ministries” he said.

Since 2001, the UCC-Ghana TUC partnership has trained over 250 students who are in various leadership positions in the unions.