Some time ago, student leaders of one of the new private universities were hosted on Citi FM.
They were offered the opportunity to share the results of their academic projects with the listeners and show how such academic works solved (or attempted to resolve) some of the everyday challenges confronting humanity in general and Ghanaians in particular.
It was quite heart-warming listening to zealous youths wrestling with everyday problems that have either defied the current solution models or simply have continued to be with us as a result of some lazy, inefficient public service system.
The decision to share the fruits of some academic work with the public is an initiative worth commending and surely reflects the out-of-the-box thinking model adopted by the authorities of these new yet hope-inspiring private centres of learning.
If you have to complete an academic project this year, you can turn such a taxing exercise into a little enterprise with the potential to better your chances of securing a job after school.
Critically examining the Ghanaian society will certainly reveal numerous areas of enormous academic as well as practical interest to students in whichever area of learning one is undertaking.
Students of economics and related business subjects are the ones with the best shot at leveraging on their long essays and getting the fruits of these works in the mainstream business community. In one of my most recent publications in this column, I dared undergraduates to avail themselves to the wealth of experience they would gain as interns.
Merits
One of these numerous merits is the fact that as you familiarise with the industry (through several internships), you get the limited but necessary experience to be able to figure out a long essay topic that readily answers some of the most nagging questions specific to the business entity where you have come again and again for the apprenticeship.
An academic project crafted out of the relentless headaches of a business will most likely appeal to even the most difficult of bosses and the most critical senior members of the company in question.
By the time a problem statement emerges and the tools for analysing the data are adopted, a clear picture of the real market value of the essay would have manifested itself vividly.
Same approach can be adopted by the computer engineering final year undergraduate who spent ample time as wage less long vacation employee in a quasi-financial institution in his locality.
Having understood the special technology needs of the entity, you are that person to suggest alternative ways of getting around the tech challenge that had unnecessarily slowed business and even threatened it.
When the software in use at the time you were an intern was a cheap, generic ware that clearly might have outlived its usefulness and relevance and so was even feared could be hacked into by a computer terrorist of average acumen, maybe the time has come for you to salvage this enterprise. By aligning your project to the needs of the enterprise, you may be scoring marks that give you a good lead in the race for dominance in your class and at the same time helping a distressed company get it right.
Either bettering the speed, precision, or the hacking-resistance of the software is a smart way of asking the business to consider inviting you on board. Another way of embarking on this project is to take up this challenge and speak with other competitor companies in same industry.