Former Education Minister Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has criticised some academic programmes offered by Ghanaian universities, arguing that they fail to equip students with employable skills and contribute to the country’s growing graduate unemployment.
Speaking on the Konnected Minds podcast, Dr Adutwum said several tertiary institutions continue to admit students into programmes that have little relevance to the labour market, instead of designing courses around the country’s workforce demands.
He stressed that universities should base admissions and programme offerings on regular labour market assessments to ensure graduates possess skills that are in demand.
You have done labour needs assessment of your country. You know that the country needs more engineers, they need more medical, they need more nurses, he said. If you don’t have a labour needs assessment that you are following, then what it means is that you are just educating everyone.
The former minister pointed to programmes such as Development Studies at the University for Development Studies (UDS) and BA in Education Non-Teaching at the University of Ghana as examples of courses he believes do not adequately prepare students for employment.
Recalling his time in office, Dr Adutwum said he publicly questioned the relevance of Development Studies during a speech at the New Year School.
When I was the minister, I challenged universities about that. I remember going to the New Year School and I spoke about we do not need anybody to offer courses called Development Studies to study development. No, and It was being offered at UDS, he said.
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