Director General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) says it is about time Ghana’s education system is overhauled for a more industry focused one.

According to Dr. Kodjo Essiem Mensah-Abrampah, the current system has failed to adequately prepare students to meet current industry standards thus contributing to the wave of unemployment in the country.

Speaking on PM Express Business Edition, he said the NDPC has partnered some select technical universities to rollout a precision quality standard policy to train students to meet the demands of the job market.

“We need to look at the kind of training we’re offering for these young people. So you’d realize that for the last three or four years, the emphasis has been on skills related to C-Tech and then TVET, the vocational technical engineering focusing on mathematics and others. These are technical skills which you acquire.

“And once you’re able to do that, because that is what the industry is not having, it’s not just running them through, but providing it for them with a change in attitude, a change in mindset, and these are the things the private sector is looking for.

“Once you enter without any of these skills you become a liability, the private sector doesn’t want it. And therefore we need to change our whole educational system and training and we’re not just talking about it,” he said.

He added that “Embedded in this whole policy is identifying institutions which have turned into real pilots for this practical process. So when you go to some of our technical universities which we’ve been working for some time now, these are churning out entities and individuals for our industrial activities.”