Young men and women in the Upper East Region are admonished to focus more on sharpening their talents and skills, which make them fit for the job market. An entrepreneur and lecturer at CK Tedem University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Dr. Asaah Sumaila Mohammed, said employers are more interested in the skills acquired than certificates obtained from universities.
Speaking on the Daybreak Upper East show on the International Day of Poverty Eradication, Dr. Asaah called on parents, religious institutions, and universities to help instill good moral values in the youth to help them gain meaningful employment and reduce the level of poverty in the country.
He said, “The issue now is about how we get our youth jobs, but we don’t really work on the attitude and perception of jobs in Ghana. Many of them [youth] are roaming in Ghana, and many investors are not ready to invest in small businesses for people to be employed because there is a lot of frustration in doing business in Ghana, particularly in the northern sector. We have to deal with it as a country. Job creation is important, but I think one of the areas we have to look at is attitude and trust. Unfortunately, we are growing in a particular trajectory of young people that investors don’t trust and people don’t want to employ. I think we have to look at that area as a country and begin to sensitize young people about how to get a job and what type of jobs they want to do based on the skills they have so that people can really hire them. We also have to look at skills development. Employment is an exchange of your skills for a wage.”
“The higher your skills, the higher your wage. Employers expect you to come and do something for them with your skills, not the A4 sheet called a certificate that you have. The certificate is just to justify that you have higher skills than someone with fewer certificates. You should be able to justify that you have higher skills and have acquired higher skills, not higher certificates, which is what the employer is looking for.'”
Dr. Asaah therefore called on universities, religious institutions, parents, and all stakeholders in society to help shape the behavior of young people. ‘Homes, parenting, and our new curriculum development should focus on attitude, behavior, and skill development. Universities or schools that are in training must focus on attitude. Churches and mosques should focus on attitude building because the concepts of ‘I want to get rich quickly’ and stealing have been the bases of unemployment in Ghana. People who have money to invest are not ready to invest because they cannot handle the frustration caused by young people who come just to steal.'”
Source:Â A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Samuel Adagom|Ghana
