Unemployed Degree Holders Should Consider Carpentry, Other Crafts – Prof Adei Advises
Unemployed graduates are recommended by Professor Emeritus Stephen Adei to take the initiative to reskill by enrolling in an apprenticeship program to learn a trade.
He thinks that by doing this, the graduates will be able to establish themselves while also opening up job prospects for others.
Professor Adei stated at the July 24 episode of the Springboard Virtual University show with Albert Ocran that a college degree merely serves to increase a person’s intellectual potential.
He made the argument that those who have received education will succeed when they start a craft business because they will be able to put their improved intellectual capacity to work.
Citing an example of a young man he helped to get himself established in craftwork and also acquire university education, the former rector of GIMPA said he [the young man] has now established a factory which is employing seventeen people.
“Some of them must be willing to reskill. When you finish Legon excuse me to say with political science . . . I don’t say [it is not important]. For me, all the degrees build your mind intellectually.
“But how many people have advertised and said I want a political scientist to employ. No, but your mental capacity has been enhanced. If you want to go and learn apprenticeship, I tell you within a year you are a master craft man in an area and you are the type who will be able to employ other people.
“I got a young man in upholstery. Fortunately, he was doing it by the roadside. I encouraged him to go to university, finish and do other things. Today he came to my house, he is employing 17 people doing chairs.
“But you having finished History, you will go and be their apprentice for two years and you have the capacity of setting up your joinery and you will employ other people. Very soon you will not be the one hitting the nails. So, the reskilling is important for you to do,” Professor Adei emphasized.
There has been a growing unemployment rate in the country, especially since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic.
At present, the government intends to roll out the YouStart initiative to provide support for small start-ups.
