Don’t add up to unemployed youth – Graduates told

Bishop Gideon Titi-Ofei, Founder of the Accra Business School, has reiterated the call on graduates to endeavour to be job creators and not job seekers.

“As students who have gone through the academic tutorials of Perez University College, you must have the mindset of creating jobs right after leaving school to reduce poverty and joblessness among the youth. Don’t add up to the unemployed youth,” he said.

He made the call when he addressed graduates at the Eighth Congregation of Perez University College.

Speaking on the theme: “Developing Perez University College into a Top-Class Entrepreneurial Christian University: The Role of Stakeholders,” Bishop Titi-Ofei said to become entrepreneurial, Perez University had to change the traditional ways of operating among universities, if not totally discard it.

“What this means is that for any university to succeed within this hyper-competitive environment, it ought to think about innovative ways of operating to survive and thrive. These are good leadership and governance, capacity incentives entrepreneurship in teaching and learning, a culture of entrepreneurship, stakeholder partnerships, and internationalisation,” he added.

He asked the graduates to strive to make Perez University College different if they wanted to make an indelible contribution to entrepreneurship development and nation-building.

Bishop Titi-Ofei said every school was to practise what it taught, adding: “The law of legitimacy says you cannot teach what you have not successfully practised. We hear a lot about how universities should teach entrepreneurship and create entrepreneurs, but the question we must be asking ourselves is that, are the universities themselves entrepreneurial in nature?”

He said most Christian higher education institutions were either mission oriented or discipleship-oriented and used education to either evanglise the lost or edify the saved or both, a situation that made a few of them entrepreneurial in practice.

Speaking on the characteristics of an entrepreneurial university, the guest speaker referred to the expression by Professor Deresh Ramjugernath, the Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, that good leadership and governance, capacity incentives entrepreneurship in teaching and learning, a culture of entrepreneurship, stakeholder partnerships, and internationalisation were the key elements to building an entrepreneurial university.

He entreated the University to consider establishing a Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation that connected and engaged academics with industry problems on a consulting basis and as well transform its trinity functions of teaching, research, and services into marketised products and services.

Bishop Titi-Ofei urged government to set aside funding to support universities that made it a point to roll out entrepreneurial programmes, saying, support for entrepreneurship must not target only the entrepreneurs, but also the very institutions that produced the future entrepreneurs.

Reverend Dr. Daniel Nii Aboagye Ayerh, Vice Rector of the University, gave the assurance that the graduates produced were entrepreneurs, some of whom had started their own businesses with an overall aim of contributing to the economy’s growth.

“For instance, our Best Marketing student has started his own work and has employed people,” he added.

He said one objective of Perez was to give all students from senior high schools the chance to ‘shine’ and excel in the world of work and make a positive impact on society irrespective of their capabilities.

The university graduated 320 students from three-year groups out of which 185 were females. Students offered varied courses including Bachelor of Arts, Diploma and Certificate courses in Marketing, Human Resource Management, Technical and Vocational Training (Mastercraft), Banking and Finance, Accounting, Christian Ministry and Church Administration.

Perez University College is an educational initiative of the Perez Chapel International which began as a Bible College in September 1992 in Tamale, Northern Ghana by Bishop Charles Agyin-Asare.

It is affiliated to the University of Cape Coast and the Trinity Theological Seminary.

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