Mr Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, on Thursday said whilst young people were willing and able to contribute to the development of the nation, there were huge challenges that prevented them from making maximum impact.
“These challenges are diverse and many, significant amongst them are education and training,” he said.
Mr Terlabi, who was speaking at the seventh Congregation of the All Nations University College in Koforidua, said in order to harness the power of young people for the accelerated development of the nation, there was the need to tackle those challenges head on and with urgency.
He said the youth needed access to both decent formal education and opportunities to acquire a range of vocational and life skills that would equip them to participate in all spheres of an increasingly knowledge-intensive society.
“Unfortunately, young people in Ghana today struggle to acquire education that provides them with the right set of skills and knowledge. As a result, the transition from school to work is a major challenge with the result that many young Ghanaians end up either unemployed or underemployed in the informal sector with little protection and no prospects”.
Mr Terlabi said in recent years, a lot of emphasis had been placed on improving Primary School enrolment as a way of increasing access to Basic education.
He said initiatives such as provision of infrastructure in Basic Schools, the School Feeding Programme and Free Uniforms Project had all led to an increase in enrolment.
“However the challenge is greater at the tertiary levels, where the curricula are faced with the challenge of providing students with the skills that are demanded by employers”.
Mr Terlabi suggested an urgent need to redesign the curricula at all levels to suit the changing needs of the labour market or alternatively to combine formal education with work- based training.
Professor William O. Ellis, Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, who was the special guest of honour, appealed to the graduates to be prepared to learn from experiences of others they would meet in the job market.
He reminded them that society is governed by both written and unwritten norms and values and they must live within such norms and value systems of the society they would find themselves in.
Daasebre Dr Oti Boateng, the Omanhene of the New Juaben Traditional Area, expressed worry about the tendency of some people to take advantage of the vulnerability of the youth to enlist their support to embark on unnecessary demonstrations.
He appealed to people who might have grievances to channel them through the appropriate channels for redress.