Gov't should focus on preparing service personnel for the job market - Titi-Ofei

Bishop Titi-Ofei, President of the Accra Business School has called on the government to be interested in preparing national service personnel for the job market.

The National Service Scheme (NSS) does their annual posting of tertiary students into various sectors of the economy without necessarily taking into consideration the field of study of the personnel.

Most people are posted out of their field of study over the years.

Speaking on this issues of which many have raised concern about, Bishop Titi-Ofei said this has made it difficult for personnel to find a job after their service.

“I don’t think national service should just be posting our young people anywhere at any point regardless of what they learnt in the university. Students are being posted without any help and after the service, they come to join the pool of unemployed graduates in the country.

He noted that even if the universities failed in positioning the students for the job market, the government should be more interested in it by posting the students to their various field of studies.

READ ALSO : NSS to begin production of bottled and sachet water in 2020

I believe the one-year period of national service, even if our universities fail to get the students ready for the job, the government should be interested to say let us use national service to get these guys ready for the job market,” he added.

As part of ways to address unemployment in the country, Bishop Titi-Ofei also believes the modernization agriculture and to boost the interest of young people will help the situation.

He said the government should give the same incentives that it gives to nurses and teacher trainees to agricultural students to encourage many young people to study agriculture in school.

“So when they are in school they are given allowances and are assured of a job when they leave school. So, that will be our direction if we want to become a modernized agricultural state where we can export agricultural produce.

“We should make it so prestigious and give young people incentives to go into agriculture and while you are studying agricultural science in school, you will be given allowances as well as an assurance for employment.

READ ALSO : NSS to post graduate entrepreneurs to their own firms

“Let’s go back into the concept of state farm and the produce buying companies and also build silos to ensure that food can be stored. When we are able to do this then we will be on our way to solving this graduate unemployment problem,” he said.