President of the Accra Institute of Technology (AIT), Professor Clement Dzidonu has urged moderators of Technical and Vocational Institutions across the country to nurture job-market ready graduates to counter the overwhelming unemployment rate recorded annually.

According to Professor Clement Dzidonu, the calibre of students who emerge from the various tertiary institutions in recent times are not equipped to deliver professional services in their fields of specialization despite having passed out with good qualifications.

Speaking at the 4th Anniversary Lecture of the Bakara Policy Institute (BPI) in Accra on Tuesday, February, 20, he noted that the issue of unemployment after 60 years of the country’s independence will be tossed into the trash should students be given hands-on skills to face the working world.

“Of recent, I’ve started to delve into technical vocational education. We as a university, we have been training engineers, civil engineers, electronic engineers, computer engineers. We think our students get jobs but are becoming worried about the situation in the country.”

Professor Clement Dzidonu argued that there are jobs in the vocational and technical sectors in the country but the situation of square pegs filling rounds holes has impeded confidence in newly trained mechanics and engineers which results in forestalling job opportunities for them.

“I know there are jobs at the technical vocation level, but what my problem is whether we are training the right vocational people for today’s modern job market.

Are we training the right auto mechanics? How many of the mechanics we are training can repair the cars on our roads now? I doubt it,” he queried.

“So it’s not only the question of technical vocational training, it is also a question of whether we are training them to be technologically savvy in terms of some of these things we have now.

The building construction is very technology driven now. A lot of these things, the refrigerator system, is technology-driven,” he added.

He advocated for students not only be given training in technical and vocational aspects but also be technologically inclined to be able to fit into the emerging technologies.

He also charged students to push for their Institutions to give them the right training they deserve to fit into the job sphere.

“I’m glad that all of our technical institutions are here. You better ask your institutions, are you training us to be technologically compliant for today’s job market?” Professor Clement Dzidonu admonished.

Bakara Policy Institute is a Think Tank established in January 2014 with a special focus on promoting social justice and national development through Research and Advocacy.

Its core areas of operation are education improvement with emphasis on access, quality and relevance as well as the promotion of the overall wellbeing of the marginalized segments of the Ghanaian society.”