Veep calls for new measures to address graduate unemployment

Vice President Amissah-Arthur on Saturday noted that even though Government has initiated many programmes to help address the issue of graduate unemployment in the country, a lot more needs to be done.

He said Ghana’s rapidly expanding economy will open up employment opportunities for the graduates especially in the oil and gas sector after the completion of many on-going projects in that sector.

The Vice President made the remarks at the 44th congregation of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), where a total of 4,934 students, including 1,048 post graduates and under-graduates were awarded post graduate and bachelor degrees respectively.

The ceremony, which was held in five sessions, started from Thursday, September 27 and climaxed on Saturday.

Mr. Amissah-Arthur said Government has gone to considerable lengths to improve access to quality education at all levels, from basic to the tertiary level, and that bold pragmatic measures have been taken to boost the provision of quality human resource for the country.

The Vice President encouraged the graduates to embrace the spirit of entrepreneurship and become job creators instead of job seekers in order to employ thousands of people.

Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, the out-going Vice-Chancellor of the University said during her tenure of office from October 2008 to this year, a total of 23 new and relevant postgraduate programs have been introduced and approved by the University.

She said over the past three years 1,000 postgraduate students had benefitted from short courses, workshops and seminars on ICT, research methods and supervision, organized by the School.

She said during the same period, the total number of staff increased from 3,601 to 5,226, with academic staff going up from 427 to 572, whilst it also thoroughly reviewed and introduced relevant courses at all levels.

Source: GNA