President John Dramani Mahama has said his government will continue its aggressive policies to improve employment opportunities for graduates if re-elected in the December polls.

According to him, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has the best policy in its manifesto to address the issue of unemployment and job creation for jobless graduates.

Speaking at the Wa campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) on Saturday 19 November, as part of his campaign tour of the region, he said government was realigning academic training with what business ad industries were looking for, as is done in the developed countries.

“We have done enough work over these last four years to earn re-election and I’m hopeful and confident that we will get elected and that the NDC will win the election in 2016. When we have won in the second term, we are going to continue aggressive policies that will improve the opportunities for employment,” he stated.

“Some people are saying it with their mouths, but I urge you to take the manifestos of the parties and if you look at the job-creation proposals in the NDC manifesto, I believe that it is the most credible and most realistic. We are looking at realigning academic training and what business and industry is looking for,” Mr Mahama said.

He noted that there was the need for more practical work to be done as part of academic work to give students hands-on experience in the job market before they graduate.

“The last time I met captains of industry…they said that they didn’t want theoretical graduates; they want graduates who are practical and so if somebody rushes to do an MBA and comes and it’s just a theoretical MBA, [they] want an MBA holder, who, in his academic training, has had a practical, hands-on training and, so, if you notice, most of the universities in the United States of America and other developed countries send students into the world of work. You do an internship for one year and then you come back, study, and then take your exams before you come out. So, by the time they come out, they are not just theoretical but practical,” he said.

Mr Mahama also promised to upgrade the roads within the university’s campus. He assured: “As we continue to upgrade the Wa town roads, we will also upgrade the roads within your campus, so that the campus is befitting of the kind of academic work that you do here.”