Invest in technical universities to produce entrepreneurs - Lecturer advises govt
The Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Technology (FAST) of the Tamale Technical University (TaTU), Dr. Adiza Sadik, has called for more investments in the catering, tourism, and hospitality departments of the various technical universities across the country.
That, she said, would help provide graduates from those departments with hands-on practical skills to become self-employed and also create jobs for their peers as a way of helping to address the graduate and youth unemployment in the country.
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Investing in the departments, she said, meant that graduates would be equipped with the practical knowledge and skills to become “creators of jobs and not job seekers”, after their graduation.
Exhibition
Dr. Adiza made the call at the 13th annual product exhibition for final year students of the Hospitality, Catering, Tourism and Management (HCTM) Department of the TaTU held at the university’s campus in Tamale.
The event was aimed at empowering the young graduates from the technical universities on the need to harness their potentials and take advantage of the opportunities available to create jobs for themselves.
This year’s event on the theme: “Eat Ghana, Wear Ghana and See Ghana in the midst of COVID-19, the role of technical universities,” brought together stakeholders from the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Tourism Department of the University for Development Studies (UDS), staff and students of the TaTU.
The final year students were made to exhibit their products, which included processed Neem oil, fruit juice, groundnut paste, chocolate, pastries and local dishes, among others, to the world to show their capability as well as seek support to enhance their practical-based programme in creating jobs for themselves.
Training
Dr. Adiza said the department was committed to training students to compete in the challenging world of advancement adding that the department had taken the lead in training its students to be job creators and not job seekers in the hospitality industry.
According to her, the provision of logistics to the students would help them add value to their products in order to meet the demand of the market to create direct and indirect jobs.
The Northern Regional Chairman of the Ghana Hoteliers Association, Mr. Cosmos Alhassan, commended the department for the tremendous effort to produce quality products for the hospitality industry in the region and also across the country.
He, therefore, advised the students to take advantage of the opportunities within the programme and the sector to create jobs for themselves without necessarily relying on government.
Rationale
The Head of Department of HCTM, Mr. Fatawu Alhassan, said the main idea behind the exhibition was to help showcase products the students produced as part of their project work.
“As a technical university, we are committed to providing the students with hands-on skills so that when they graduate, they will have something to do rather than to go out looking for jobs and that we will produce job creators.
“Therefore, if you want to produce job creator, then the person in the process of being trained should know and have the ability to produce to make a living before or after graduating from school,” he said.
He noted that it gave the department excitement because some forms of jobs had been created through the activities and would continue to train more students for the industries.
“As a country, we have relied on foreign products over the years and if we are to continue to purchase from the foreign countries, it means we are improving someone’s economy instead of helping our economy to grow,” he said.
He said “if we are able to produce goods and services, consumed by the locals, it will help grow the economy.”
