The Vice-Dean of the School of Agriculture, Prof. Julius Hagan, has dismissed long-held views of some business owners that universities were not training students to fit the job market.

He said the core mandates of the university were teaching, research and extension, and also to open the minds of students to fit into every sector of the economy.

"The university doesn't prepare students for a particular job. We don't train people for Bank of Ghana or we don’t train people for Ministry of Agriculture. There is nowhere in Ghana that they will advertise and say the whole Ghana we can’t get anybody who is qualified (for this job). So the point is, we don't have the jobs. So it is not the universities," Prof Hagan said, speaking at the 42nd Green Week Celebration of the School.

Organized by students of the School of Agriculture, the event was on the theme: "Developing Agriculture in Ghana: The Role of Agriculture Students."

The Vice Dean stated that universities produce all-round graduates to fit well into the job market and advised critics to refrain from their "myopic thinking" about graduates trained by universities.

"There is no university in the world that will prepare you (students) that immediately you are employed, you have all the skills", he added, calling on business owners to train and orient graduates they employed after university.

Prof. Hagan gingered the students to be self-confident to be successful in their academics whilst advising them to pursue Agriculture as a business enterprise.

The Vice-Dean added that agriculture should be seen as a major avenue for sustainable employment and income and advised the students to seize the opportunities the agriculture industry offers.

Prof. Hagan disclosed that the seeds for the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ and animals for the ‘Rearing for Food and Jobs’ programmes were imported.

"All the animals supplied to the farmers, they brought them form Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali. No single farmer in Ghana can produce 2,000 goats. So if we want to supply 2000 goats you have to go to Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali," he added.

Citing another example to the students to seize the agriculture chances on campus, the Vice-Dean told the students "Our own (UCC) Meat Processing Unit, the whole of Cape Coast, we are not getting broilers to buy. The farm is unable to provide us five hundred (500) birds every month."

He, therefore, challenged the students to pool resources to rake in from direct market on campus, adding that UCC Farm was ready to buy produce from students.

Source: Documentation and Information Section-UCC