The Dean of University of Ghana Business School, Professor Justice Bawole has advised students to develop soft skills as requirements for the job market.
In an interview with UniversNews, Prof. Bawole disclosed that the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) is organizing a 2-day soft skill training in collaboration with A&P Intern Connect Africa on 21st and 23rd July to equip students with soft skills such as communication and ethics.
According to him, this would help to make them advantageous in the job market.
“The partnership with A&P Intern connect Africa is meant to give our students the opportunity to be taken through soft skills, personal skills, ethics,empathy,communication skills that can put them ahead of their peers from other universities.”
Prof. Bawole added that the overemphasis on the foundational subjects of study is a result of the academic curriculum’s dense structure.
According to him, the packed academic structure prevents students from getting the opportunity to adequately prepare for real-life situations at the workplace.
“Here in the University of Ghana Business School and in many other schools largely across Africa, there is a disproportionate around the core areas of study. If it is Business Administration, we focus on Business Administration, we teach the students everything about Business Administration and because of the packed nature of the curriculum, there’s usually not a lot of time to do other things.”
According to him, interactions with employers and industry professionals unveiled some challenges they faced as a result of the inadequate soft skills of graduates.
“We have received complaints from our industry partners and employers, the fact that students do not possess adequate soft skill of leadership, ethics , communication, empathy and related stuff.”
Prof. Bawole spoke on the need to provide more training sessions for many students in order to equip them with the needed soft skills for job market.
“This is going to continue and we’re going to scale it up and make sure that as many students as possible can participate and this should turn around the skill sets our students would go into the industry with.”
–
Story by | Aba Adadziewaa Addison | univers.ug.edu.gh
