The 52nd SRC Week Celebrations of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) has been launched to a rousing welcome with a call on students to explore and develop their skills whilst on campus.
The event, which was on the theme “The role of the Private sector in Solving Graduate Unemployment” witnessed a large number of students thronged to the UCC Main Auditorium on Friday, March, 13, 2015.
This year’s celebrations are expected to start from April, 15 -April, 19, 2015 and there are a lot of fun-packed activities to entertain students.
Speaking at the launch, a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at UCC Dr. Georgina Yaa Oduro, disclosed that current treads were such that only few lucky people would be employed in the public sector, and therefore the majority of graduates would have to seek job at the private sector.
This phenomenon, she said, meant that students must develop their competencies to enable them jell very effectively to the pressure of demand at the private sector.
Dr. Oduro emphasized that graduate unemployment cut across all persons who have acquired post-secondary/ tertiary education including vocational schools, polytechnics, Colleges of Health and Education as well as the universities.
She further disclosed that graduate unemployment has become a global problem due to rising number of youth being churn out by various institutions, but statistics show that graduate unemployment in Ghana is hovering nearly over 25,000 people, equivalent to 5% of the total population.
The remedy to this alarming statistics, she said, depended much on students ability to sharpen their skills and be innovative in order to gain job placement in the highly competitive job market.
“The private sector require employee to work tirelessly in order to break even and therefore workers are expected to be time conscious, good planners, pay attention to details, be multi-skilled, be creative and innovative and above all, develop critical competencies” Dr. Oduro added.
Other speakers such as Mr. E.T. Akonnor from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology expressed similar sentiment and encouraged students to develop high interest in activities outside classroom work which would help students to network as well as learn to motivate the right attitude.
Patrons were enthralled with heart-warming cultural performances from the ATL Hall Cultural troupe.
Story by: Abdul-Karim Mohammed Awaf(Fayar)
Communication Studies(0268466467)
