The Ghana Union of Professional Students (GUPS) has expressed concern over the growing rate of unemployment in the country.
In a statement, newly elected President of the Union, Bismark Gyamfi said “the rate of youth unemployment in Ghana has become a thing of no hope, as every move of the government proves otherwise.”
He has therefore stressed the need for government to restructure the youth employment programme in the country to benefit not just a segment of the youth in Ghana, but benefit all youth across the country, both the educated and uneducated, skilled and unskilled, rural settlers and urban settlers.
That, he said was because “we believe all youth in Ghana deserve equal opportunities to maximize their potentials.”
He equally raised issues with the falling standards of professional education in the country, saying “it is obvious that all attempts by the government to improve upon professional education have failed.”
“As the newly elected officers of GUPS, it was an eyesore when we visited some of these institutions. The so called Professional institutions which should make more and adequate room to train more professionals are rather left in a more appalling and devastating state. Most of these institutions have not seen any infrastructural facelift at all over the years since their establishment”, he revealed.
Leadership of the Union has thus admonished government to “take a second look at professional tertiary institutions in Ghana and give them the needed support to aid their various professional training needs” with specific reference to schools like the School of Social Works (SSW), Ghana School of Surveying and Mapping (GSSM), National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) etc.
GUPS is of the conviction that these skilled professionals are not going to rely on the government for employment, and this will, as it were, reduce the burden of unemployment which has become the canker on the neck of the government.”
By Charles Takyi-Boadu