Introduce innovative programmes — Nana Konadu
Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, has urged private educational institutions to introduce innovative training programmes that will adequately prepare their students for the job market.
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She said they could accomplish that if they endeavoured to engage qualified lecturers and maintain high curricula standards.
“It has become necessary for our tertiary institutions to offer programmes that are relevant to the job market and ensure that quality education is not compromised,” she stated.
Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings was speaking at the 7th graduation ceremony of the IPMC College of Technology in Accra last Tuesday.
At the event, which was held on the theme: “Raising entrepreneurs for 21st century job market - The role of private institutions”, 600 students graduated.
Harnessing entrepreneurial skills
Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings stated that for tertiary institutions to successfully train good graduates and entrepreneurs, they must strive to maintain high standards without compromise.
She said it was the responsibility of the institutions to harness the entrepreneurial skills of their students in order to imbibe in them employable skills and knowledge.
“Achieving this means quality of lecturers and training programmes cannot be compromised for economic expediency. Besides, training students to be successful entrepreneurs could only be achieved if they are encouraged to be creative and innovative,” she stated.
Advice
The former first lady advised the graduates to be passionate about their ambitions and not allow themselves to be discouraged by failures, saying that, “Failure will help you to learn to improve on your mistakes.”
“The most dynamic entrepreneurs are those who are not intimidated by failure but strive to create teams of people smarter than they are,” she said.
Creativity and innovation
The Chief Executive Officer of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Mr Rudolf Berkley, encouraged the graduates to understand the basic concept of Information Technology (IT) to enable them to practice it.
“To be unique and competitive on the job market as IT professionals, you must learn and practice IT which is essential for national development”.
“You must remember that qualification and certificate are not enough. It is your level of creativity that would determine your usefulness in the world of IT,” he said and urged the graduates to be focused and cultivate the spirit of innovativeness.
Hard work
The CEO of IPMC, Mr Amardeep Singh Hari, advised the graduates to be hard working and dedicated to their future career, reminding them that “hard work has earned a lot of people their current status in Ghana.”
“You must persevere and refuse to be discouraged by failure since it is only by this you can contribute your quota to nation building,” he added.
