University students to use acquired skills to create own jobs

Professor Steve Sobotie, President of the Garden City University College (GCUC), has appealed to graduates to use their knowledge and skills to create own jobs.

He said they should become more innovative to make impact on the nation’s socio-economic growth.

He said this in an address read for him at the fourth congregation of the college at Kenyase in the Kwabre East District.

“Building the next generation of innovators” was the theme.

In all, 480 students graduated after completing programmes in nursing, business and information communication technology (ICT).

Prof Sobotie said the focus should now be on learning outcomes - not just what students should know but what they could do with their knowledge and skills.

He urged tertiary institutions to restructure their curricula and adopt new approaches to teaching and learning techniques that would help their products to become competitive in the job market.

This calls for greater cooperation and partnership between the academia and industry.

That he said, would help to tackle the mismatch between the “skills needed on the job market and the skills possessed by the job seeker”.

He also underlined the need to make the environment academic friendly.

Prof William Otto Ellis, Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and technology (KNUST), said he would deepen and strengthen the affiliation of the two universities.

He appealed to the graduating students to demonstrate qualities of hard work, discipline and integrity at in their workplaces to improve productivity.