Dr Gabriel A. Ayisi, a Ghanaian businessman based in the US, has called on government to ensure the creation of adequate job opportunities to match the high graduate turnouts in the country. Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Dr Ayisi said although the country was witnessing growth in the number of private tertiary institutions, employment opportunities for graduates were virtually non-existent. He said the increase in the number of institutions of higher learning was a positive step but the focus was only on human resource development and not job opportunities. Dr Ayisi said failure to create adequate job opportunities to match the high graduate turnout would increase the problem of brain drain in the country since graduates without livelihoods would seek greener pastures in Europe and America. “Another avenue for job creation is to expand infrastructure such as roads, efficient rail system and hospitals, which are the bed rock of development,” he said. He stressed that Ghana’s infrastructural developments had not been able to match natural growth and this was impeding the socio- economic development of the country. Dr Ayisi who holds a Master of Business Administration from Youngstown State University, (USA) and PhD in Organisational Leadership from the Columbian University is in Ghana to launch a book entitled “Higher Education Centered Economic Growth and Development; Ghana as a case study”. He said the book took a critical look at issues associated with higher education in Ghana. According Dr. Ayisi, the book also discussed how to ensure full participation and integration of colleges, universities and professional schools in local, state regional and national economic planning. Dr Ayisi said the book which was a product of an intensive investigation, also outlined how to use science and technology education for economic growth as well as the need to make higher education more practical. He said, the current structure of Ghana’s higher education was more of rhetoric adding that there was the need to link industry with the development of the educational system of the country. Dr Ayisi also called on industry to take keen interest in the country’s educational development by sponsoring research programmes and playing a role in the development of their course structures. The book launch is scheduled for Thursday, August 6, in Accra. Source: GNA