A Political Scientist, Kofi Owusu Yeboah says Ghana’s educational system is the main reason for the spate of immigration among Ghanaians.
According to him,the inspection of certificates and working experience has triggered a lot of people to travel outside the country for greener pastures.
Speaking on Royal FM Morning Show,Mr Owusu stated that “in foreign countries jobs which require certificates are reserved for the citizens’’.
He added that immigrants are not asked of their certificate before they are offered jobs.
“All what is required is the skils or ability to do a specific job.
According to Mr Kofi Owusu Yeboah, in Ghana one may be endowed with the skills but may be considered as unqualified since we claim he or she has never stepped foot in the classroom before or has no certificate.
According to him since the skills of the individual is in higher demand in foreign countries, Ghanaians choose to travel outside in order make the best out of their skills.
He further noted that for Ghana to develop we need to include a lot of people in the developmental process especially the highly skilled.He lamented that in Ghana the skilled personalities are sidelined from the developmental process.
‘Go to the various magazines in the country, we have a lot of skillful personalities but are neglected due to the syndrome of certificate requirement and language(English).
He therefore suggests the inclusion of the highly skilled in the development process and also highlights the need to use our local language for the benefit of all.
I believe there are many reasons for Ghanaians staying overseas but I do agree the demand for certificates is a very serious issue.
I do not have a degree as such but I have extensive experience and worked as the CEO of several regional and national organisations overseas. I have had people work for me who have each held several university degrees. I have had medical doctors and registered nurses work for me.
In one example my boss was dismissed. He had a Phd related to clinical psychology. The organisation was a National Non Government Organisation. This Executive Director (ED) had brought the organisation to the brink of destruction and it was one month off being closed by government. I was given the ED’s job by the organisation president to save the organisation from extinction. Over twenty years later the organisation is still continuing well.
Today in my home country, one needs a certificate to even collect the garbage. The western world has now gone certificate crazy. All this stems from the ISO – International Organization for Standardization.
Interestingly, in a more recent contract I had to save a health related organisation from collapse I had cause to employ undergraduates from a respected tertiary institution. Without doubt, those who came to me without formal job specific learning far exceeded the skills and abilities of those who were in the last stages of completing their Diploma. Those who had previously learned through experience were far more capable and their achievements astounding!
I totally agree with Kofi Owusu Yeboah that such an emphasis on certificates can be very counterproductive.
Any emphasis should be more related to the abilities and performance of a worker. In other words those who can do the job and who can prove that they can do the job should get the job, regardless of certificates.
Surely employment should be all about performance and achieving the results required by the employer. The way to implement and achieve this is through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). In other words no one gets to keep a job if they do not achieve specific results in that job.
What good is a meal cooked by a highly qualified chef if it is tasteless, non nutritious and makes you sick? What good is it paying money to an employee if he or she does little to earn the money. It’s all about results, results, results and not certificates, certificates, certificates.