Editorial: Graduates must look beyond gov’t for jobs

The Deputy Minister in charge of General Education, Dr Osei Yaw Adutwum, has, according to a Daily Graphic report yesterday, advised the youth to look beyond securing a government job and rather leverage the numerous opportunities in society to become self-employed.

“When you look at the non-traditional way of succeeding, not looking for government jobs, but becoming more creative and using your critical thinking skills, you will realise that there are so many opportunities than challenges out there for you, ” Dr Adutwum reportedly said when he addressed the Virtual 18 Congregation of the Methodist University College Ghana.

In our view, the respected Deputy Minister has hit the nail right on the head, looking at the large number of graduates who are looking up to the government for employment, when other opportunities exist in the country. Indeed, any time a student completes his or her university education and subsequently National Service, the first thing they look up to is employment by the government.

Unfortunately, the government hasn’t got the financial wherewithal to employ every graduate who passes out from our universities. The security agencies, especially the police, have always been complaining about their staff strength. Any government would have, therefore, loved to employ more Senior High School and university graduates to beef up their strength, but the bottom line is that the economy cannot simply support such a move.

This is why it is always critical for the government to create the enabling environment for the private sector to thrive and employ more of the teeming youth. But while the government takes this step, the graduates must also transform the skills they have acquired during their training into practical work, so that they would not solely be dependent on the government for jobs. Fortunately, the government has set a number of social intervention programmes, most of which are also giving financial support to graduates who want to establish their own businesses.

The Chronicle was really amazed with the number of inventions by Ghanaian graduates that emerged at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. Inventions, ranging from hand washing machines to sanitisers, emerged to the surprise of many Ghanaians.

Though we admit that not all these inventions were eventually transformed into actual production, the fact that our graduates are thinking outside the box cannot be an understatement.

We are, therefore, urging our graduates to continue with the good work they have started, so that, not only are they going to be self-employed tomorrow, but also be in position to employ their colleagues who are loitering around looking for jobs to do.

The Chronicle is also appealing to the universities to lower the fees paid by technical and vocational undergraduates so that more students will be motivated to pursue courses in those fields.

Ghana has reached a critical point where all hands must be on the deck to help fight rising unemployment in the country, and we hope the universities will not hesitate in joining.

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