The Registrar of the Regional Maritime University (RMU), Dr Baboucarr Njie, has said the issue of graduate unemployment which has become a national challenge could become a thing of the past, if the youth focused attention on maritime related training.
According to him, there were available jobs within the maritime sector and young people who studied maritime related courses and training would be guaranteed immediate employment.
“The youth must focus on maritime related courses and training to get into the maritime sector as it provides ready jobs after graduation,” he stated in an interview with the Ghanaian Times on Wednesday in Accra.
Though, other courses could be essential and provide solutions to some developmental challenges, he said the maritime sector had become very attractive, required a lot of personnel to drive the sector and Ghanaian youth must take advantage of the opportunities.
He explained that sea transport remained one of the cheapest means of transferring commodities from one country to the other with vessels, offering a lot of job opportunities to qualified person to get on board.
RMU, the premium maritime education institution in Ghana he said, had positioned itself to provide the needed support to the youth to acquire the needed skills and be gainfully employed after graduation.
The government he added, must also support the RMU to continuously deliver its mandate of providing quality education to the youth from member countries and providing employment opportunities after graduation.
“Government and stakeholders should concentrate more on the maritime education as a lot could be done especially with employment of the youth and subsequently providing solutions to the current economic challenges,” he stated.
For example, he said the maritime and safety security centre linked directly to the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) provided opportunities for the youth to receive training and get onboard.
“These programmes can be picked by the government and conduct mass training for youth and send them out to sea. They could get into agreements with some vessels for Ghanaians to onboard those ships and be employed,” he recommended.
“There is always the need for personnel and the government could take opportunity to provide skills and employment for the youth,” he added.
He said, RMU graduates from member countries including the Gambia, Liberia, Cameroon and Sierra Leone had utilised the opportunities available to train experts including Chief Pilots, Captains and Habour Masters who were currently part of the Board of Governors.
“Perhaps, the host nation Ghana could utilise the opportunities more and train young people to help change the economic fortunes of the country for the better,” he stressed.
He commended the GMA for engaging in initiatives to attract the youth into the sector and urged other institutions to replicate such efforts.
“There is an easy way to progress on the professional ladder after graduating from the RMU as efforts had been made over the years to secure jobs for graduates with collaborations within and outside the country,” he stressed.
BY MICHAEL D. ABAYATEYE
