President John Mahama has said the unemployment rates in the country could be reduced if the private sector is open to employing fresh graduates into the job market.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”kmCFWE6Nm5cdWWaTs05Apl6WDbfsI3Qc”]There is a widely-held perception that majority of university graduates are not trained to suit the job market<\/strong><\/a><\/span>; leading to rising levels of graduate unemployment in the country.<\/p>\n According to President Mahama the practice where employees require skills from fresh graduates before employing them is not helping the efforts\u00a0to reduce unemployment in the country.<\/p>\n President Mahama recounted that \u201cgone are the days when at the entrance of the university after the congregation, you have UAC and other employers standing with their forms and their vehicles waiting to register students who are coming from the university gates.\u201d<\/p>\n The President added that \u201cthese companies employ these young graduates, train them and put them to work. Today many employers are reluctant to train people only to have them attracted to other enterprises after they have train them by better working conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n The President however\u00a0urged the private sector to desist from such practices.<\/p>\n He made the comment during the National Job Summit held in Accra on Thursday.<\/p>\n He said the only thing that can transform \u201cour untrained labour force into living capital for social and economic transformation\u201d depends on \u201ceducation which is liberal, technical and vocational.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe obligation for skills empowerment and training now falls more on government in order to prepare the young people in the world of work,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n