Industry must support academic sector — Prof. Aryeetey
The First Secretary-General of the African Research Universities Alliances (ARUA), Professor Ernest Aryeetey, has challenged industry players in Africa to invest in the education sector and academic activities to produce skilful and well-equipped graduates for the job market.
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He expressed the concern that companies and other institutions were more interested in sponsoring entertainment programmes to the neglect of the academia.
Answering questions from participants in the Second International Conference on Education, Development and Innovation (INCEDI) 2017, Prof. Aryeetey recalled that in the 1980s/90s, companies were always willing to take on students to do internship to enable them to have a feel of the work environment.
The conference
The conference was organised by the Institute of Education and Entrepreneurship (IEE) of the Methodist University College, Ghana. It is being attended by 63 institutions from 16 countries.
Internship
Prof. Aryeetey, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, expressed regret that nowadays, industry was shying away from engaging students on internships and turned a round to blame universities for producing graduates that were not meeting standards.
He recalled the days when companies picked students to train them as trainee managers, and that enabled the students to assess themselves as to where they could fit after school.
Such programmes gave the students the opportunity to know exactly what was expected of them after completion of school, he stressed.
“It is an easy way out for the industry to blame universities for producing graduates that are not meeting their standards,” he said, adding that the time had come for the industry and academia to dialogue on producing the right calibre of students for the work environment.
Private sector participation
Prof. Aryeetey stressed the need for government and the private sector to collaborate in order to ensure the transformation of education delivery.
The Principal of the Methodist University College, Prof. Akwasi Asabere-Ameyaw, urged the government to continually recognise and demonstrate the needed support and create the enabling environment for effective private participation in education delivery.
“I must admit, however, that sometimes the government has concerns about the private tertiary education providers as to whether the profit motive is at odds with the values of education, the risk that its providers may be unable to deliver quality provision and the absence of a research culture,” he said.
The Conference Director, Prof. Ato Essuman, said the technical programme of the conference was rich and included a keynote speech, a panel discussion with representation from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Nigeria and Liberia, with Ghana as the facilitator.
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