In complete departure from frequently heard advice to young graduates, a former Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission Dr. Charles Asembri says it is risky on the part of any fresh graduate to attempt setting up a business. He explains that without market experience in an environment that is heavily influenced by foreign goods such ventures will collapse. Speaking to the daifyEXPRESS in an interview, Dr. Asembri who is the Chief Executive of Global Mandate Consulting said records available indicate that only a fraction of students who came out of tertiary institutions and went into businesses succeed. The rest, he said, have all failed because they lack the needed experience about the job market. "Once you do that you are then driving them into a vast land of frustration and this will not in anyway help the economy" he added. Dr. Asembri said apart from the needed job exposure it takes a period of at least two years before any newly established business will begin to pick up. He noted that a combination of commitment and a perfect understanding of the risks involved in the setting up of the business are in themselves challenges one has to battle with before growing a business. According to him, it is important for employers in the private sector to offer fresh graduates the opportunity to learn from their experience before moving on to begin a fresh sheet of wealth creation. "In America for instance, companies give fresh graduates the opportunity to learn at first hand the happenings in their businesses for a period of time before they move on to try their hands on other things." He also advised the graduates to willingly avail themselves to take up internships since that will in the long term benefit them. “Money should not necessarily be the first thing in mind at that stage." He said things like proposal writing, budget preparation and cash flow, should be elements that one has to get a good grasp off before venturing into the arena of setting up a fresh business. Charles Asembri said it is important for institutions to expose students to market happenings in order for them to understand both the benefits and failures existing businesses are going through. He however fell short of blaming existing structures in the country's tertiary institutions for the low quality of graduates from the tertiary institutions. Commenting on the rising unemployment rate among young graduates in the country, Dr. Asembri said most of them could be absorbed into the mainstream private sector only if they (private sector) get the needed support from the state to help them grow. He said the private sector in the country has the capacity to reduce the number of jobless youth in the country, but most of them do not have the requisite capacity to carry out such a task. Source: Daily Express