The Acting Dean of the GIMPA Business School, Professor Ebenezer Adaku, has raised concerns about the deficiency in practical skills among students pursuing studies in procurement and supply.

Industry players, according to him, have consistently voiced their dissatisfaction with students graduating from universities lacking sufficient hands-on experience.

During the Moot Procurement training organized by the Ghana Institute of Procurement and Supply in collaboration with the GIMPA Business School, Professor Adaku spoke about the need to address this gap.

He highlighted the industry's feedback, stating that students often require re-training upon entering the job market, leading to additional resource commitments by employers.

“Increasingly, the industry players are telling us that when students come out of academic programs, they will have to retrain them and commit more resources to build their capacities to do what is required of them,” he noted.

The Moot Procurement Training, according to Professor Adaku, is a strategic initiative to position the GIMPA Business School as a practice-oriented institution. The aim is to equip students with practical skills that facilitate a seamless transition from academia to the professional field.

"We here at the GIMPA Business School would like to be seen more as a practice-based business school, quite different from the other business schools we have in Ghana, and try to have an arrangement with the professionals to help us bridge the gap between academia and practice,” he stated.

The president of the Ghana Institute of Procurement and Supply, Simon Annan, echoed similar sentiments, emphasizing that students emerging from academic institutions lack the practical knowledge essential for the job market.

The Moot Procurement training, he explained, serves as a platform to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of procurement and to reshape their perceptions of the profession.

"As professionals, we feel that the students who are coming from the academic communities lack practical experiences, and sometimes, when you ask them practical questions at job interviews, they find them difficult,” he averred.

As part of the training, students were organized into groups and assigned practical procurement and supply chain management tasks.

They underwent a step-by-step process of procurement planning aimed at enhancing their practical skills and better preparing them for real-world scenarios.

Sharing his perspective, MBA Year Two student, Emmanuel Adomako expressed optimism about the training, stating, "This training is going to help me understand procurement in the public sector better; I feel I have acquired enough knowledge for my career path."