A survey conducted by the Ghana Employers Association has revealed many Ghanaian university graduates lack analytical skills, an essential requirement by employers in Ghana.

Chief Executive Officer of the Association, Alex Frimpong who disclosed this on Joy News’ programme, PM Express, said the study was conducted after employers complained about having to do far more to invest in graduates they employ up to speed with the job market.

“In our own survey, one area that employers believe can be improved upon is analytical skills…the students that are coming from the universities lack analytical skills.

“Creativity, communication skills, IT… these are issues that employers have concerns with regarding the students and these are areas that we think collaboration with the tertiary institutions comes in handy,” he added.

Mr Frimpong was contributing to the discussion on the topic ‘University education in Ghana, fir for purpose’?

The conversation came about after an alumnus of the University of Ghana criticised the management of the institution for not doing enough to innovate and improve on the quality of graduates.

The chief executive officer of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, Senyo Hosi said during a speech at an event to mark the 70^th anniversary of the University that he will not employ any graduates from there because they are substandard.

“I have three degrees; all from the University of Ghana. I won’t hire anybody [from UG], it’s simple. And it’s a matter of substance: what do you churn out?

“You are churning out people with degrees, not people with an education, not people with skills on how to live; that is the problem,” added.

Mr Frimpong says while there indeed is a problem as their research has found, the universities cannot be solely blamed for the problem.

He believes that not everything can be taught in school and people can, on their own, pick up certain traits from their communities.

“Nowadays a lot of us do not engage in social and communality activates, we don’t learn these things from the community, leadership skills and all that. We are able to work within our communities to acquire some of these skills.”

That aside, Mr Frimping is also of the view that employers cannot have it all.

He said the universities play their roles sufficiently and adequately by churning out graduates who have the right minds to engage in their professional fields.

“If you have a first-class student from KNUST [Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology] with electrical engineering, they have done their part. It is for us as employers to also come to the party by making sure that we prepare them adequately so that they can be fit for purpose, I am not sure that in spite of the brilliance they will bring to the table they will fit in automatically

“We have to go through a rigorous training programme to prepare them so that they can fit in. Of course, even the numbers that we have, not all of them will make the mark but there are exceptionally brilliant ones that we have come across,” he added.

We need to work together to change the environment, he said.