Academia, industry need to collaborate for nation-building’
The Chief Executive Officer of Telecel Ghana, Ms Patricia Obo-Nai, has advocated stronger collaboration between higher educational institutions and industry to prioritise the integration of industrial skills into academic curricula, asserting its relevance to nation-building.
Speaking at the 14th matriculation and 16th Congregation of the Ghana Christian University College (GCUC), she said the fast-changing global job market demands professionals skilled in tech skills and data science, stressing that the quality of human resources produced by academic institutions would determine the competitiveness of the country’s workforce.
The event was on the theme: ‘Inculcating industrial skills in academia: Key to nation building.’
“From my years of experience in industry, I dare to say that the quality of human resource is the most critical. The quality of graduates we produce from our tertiary institutions will determine the quality of our future workforce. Industries and universities will need to develop structured work readiness programmes to serve as the vital bridge between the world of education and the workforce,” she indicated.
Ms Obo-Nai pointed out that the rapid pace of change in consumer needs and business sustainability called for academia to stay ahead of industry trends to better prepare students for the workforce.
She shared a few key recommendations to help universities and students better align with industry needs, including revising curricula to add more industry input, partnering with industry for practical projects, and offering continuous opportunities for learning and knowledge exchange.
The ceremony, attended by members of the university’s Governing Council, Board of Trustees, university’s presidency, faculty, mentoring universities and guests, saw the successful matriculation of 356 fresh students and graduation of 186 students from the Faculty of Health Sciences and Faculty of Business Studies and Technology of GCUC.
Newly inducted president of GCUC, Rev. Dr James Yamoah, called for private sector support to improve the university’s infrastructure and realise their vision of training and churning out employable graduates.
“While our University College sees critical thinking as a necessity tool and therefore looking for any help that shall facilitate it so that our products will be able to compete favourably with their counterparts anywhere, we are also very much concerned about how our products will contribute to the efforts by the government and industries in building a robust economy that ensures employability and productivity with less or no graduate unemployment challenges,” Rev. Dr Yamoah added.
GCUC’s Governing Council Chairman, Prof. Samuel K. Offei, also added his voice to the call for external assistance from government and the private sector to improve the quality of holistic education the institution is delivering.
