A former director of the Ghana Education Service, Michael Nsowa, has rejected the widely held assertion that the country’s tertiary institutions have failed in training graduates to fit into the job market.

According to him, formal education ensures students have the basic foundation to be built on, and that it is the responsibility of industry to employ fresh graduates from school and add value to them by giving them the requisite training before they start working.

“Where are the industries in Ghana for anybody to even practice,” he asked, and said just as the banks in the country usually train fresh employees before they start working, “the surviving industries have the responsibility to train fresh graduates they employ”.

Mr Nsowa said this during a discussion on whether Ghana’s education system provides the solution to the country’s problems, on 3FM’s Sunrise morning show.

Many Ghanaians, including industry, have criticised the country’s education system as not being effective, especially in the training of people to fit into the job market.  They have argued for an overhaul of the educational structure.

But Mr Nsowah disagreed with that assertion, noting industry should rather take the blame because the industry is responsible for adding value to the graduates.

Mr. Nsowah who lived in Obuasi for about 23 years recalled how the mining companies there employed fresh graduates and took them to the then Tarkwa School of Mines, to give them the practical experience before they started working.

By Shirley Ewurama Smith|3FM 92.7|3news.com|Ghana