Mr Papi-Paulo Zigah, the Director of International Operations, Future Careers Ghana, has called on the government to incorporate career education into the educational curriculum to prepare the youth for the global job market.
He said Education must focus on the global job market and technological development, adding that Career education must be concerned with the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes through a planned programme of learning experiences.
He noted that career education also focused on training settings that assist students to make informed decisions about their life, study, or work options, and enable effective participation in working life.
Mr Zigah said this at a day’s seminar organised by the Ghana News Agency, which aimed at providing a platform for both state and non-state organisations to address national issues to enhance development.
“We have reached the point where we need to educate the public about this, that higher education is not about the university, it is about any opportunity to help you acquire skills and knowledge relevant to a specific occupation,” Mr Zigah added.
He said it simply offered the child the ability to build his or her career education through one’s own natural abilities through guidance.
Mr Zigah said career education assisted students to reflect on their ambitions, interests, strengths, and abilities as well as helped them to have a greater understanding of options, pathways, the labour market, and employment, and to relate this to what they know about themselves.
This results in a variety of positive outcomes as the students’ performance improved such as enhancing confidence and positive attitude in making career-related decisions, career exploration behaviours, and a lot more to complement the current educational system.
He said supporting students to know their interests, abilities, and goals; understanding the fundamentals of occupations, and acquiring knowledge, and skills regarding career planning were very essential in preparing them for the future.
“If you know what you want to become, you can develop your own competence, you can take a lot of online courses to put you in a position where you can deliver within that particular occupation or profession,” he stated.
He said career education instilled in students the knowledge they needed to obtain a meaningful career, adding that there was the need to give Ghanaian youth career guidance and access to quality information to make informed choices for their future.
Mr Zigah said preparing students for the future would require all teachers working to provide them with the knowledge, and skills to manage their studies and careers.
He called for the training of educators and their involvement in designing the lessons; infusing career knowledge into the content of academic courses; organising more career practice activities for students.
Mr Francis Ameyibor, Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Manager, explained that “we recognise the excellence in stakeholder engagement, which we believe will assist us GNA and our stakeholders to deliver and ensure that society plays an active watchdog role so that institutions perform”.
Mr Ameyibor said the Agency was strategically placed as a credible news organisation that needed to deepen its relations with its stakeholders for mutual benefit and to advance the prospects of the agency and the country as a whole.
Other speakers at the stakeholders’ engagement were: Mr Richard A. Quayson, Deputy Commissioner, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice; Mr Richard Kovey, a convenor at Campaign Against Privatisation and Commercialisation of Education (CAPCOE); and Mr Edward Kareweh, General Secretary of the Ghana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU).
