The Need To Bridge The Gap Between Academia, Industry And Policy Makers

An effective collaboration between academia and industry has the potential of boosting our economy and transforming the fortunes of our country whilst ensuring growth. When educational institutions of higher learning and industry come together in a working symbiotic relationship, both will find a common ground to meet each other’s needs and create a substantial and sustainable win-win situation for all.

Sadly, there is not much that can be said about this ideal relationship. Academic institutions and industries are performing on their own terms without little or no coordination and collaboration. And as a consequence of that, academia ends up producing graduates or a workforce that industry cannot engage to advance their cause for the common good of all. Industry on its part cannot produce or manufacture more because they lack the needed workforce to accommodate expansion. And in most cases, the nation bears the consequential loses that result from such a conundrum. 

Some of the principal factors creating the ever-widening gap between academia and industry includes; lack of interactions between the two entities, lecturers or faculty lacking industrial exposure, the examination or evaluation process used in assessing students’ performance, industry not getting involved in curriculum review and development and students lacking employ-ability skills amongst other factors.

As one who has studied and taught in Ghana over the years, I have discovered that there is a huge disconnect between the human resource industry needs and what the academia churns out as trained graduates. And this cuts across from university, vocational, professional and even high school graduates. Sadly, the graduates produced from our educational institutions are not exactly what the industry needs.

Most of these graduates often pass out unskilled. Industry would often have to mobilize extra resources to give them some internal education in order to institutionalize them. Most of these companies within industries have had to equip graduates with the needed skills in order for them to function effectively in the roles assigned to them on the job.

This problem can be attributed to the kind of teaching methodology being used in our educational institutions. Truth is, the teaching and learning method employed is largely theoretical and devoid of practicality making it unfit for the twenty-first century market. Often, students are taught for about three months on the average and are given only a maximum of two hours to give feedback for what has been learnt over the period. This mode of testing in my view is obviously not fit for purpose.

Also, a careful look at the curricula of our local institutions shows that they all run similar programmes with different curricula. For instance, you would realise that students studying Computer Science in one institution has a different curriculum compared to another student studying the same programme in another institution of higher learning. Sadly, most of the content that makes up the curricula are also not relevant with regards to current industry needs.

I am tempted to believe the stakeholder institutions that credit these programmes to be run in our institutions are not in tune with the changing trends in our current dispensation. Things are fast changing at the tick of the clock and until people at the helm of affairs get themselves abreast with the disruptive development and impress on academia to redesign their curricula to reflect industry needs, then we will continue to enjoy a jolly ride on a rocking chair; moving back and forth but still stagnant. It is about time we stopped indulging mediocrity and stepped up for what will make our nation better. There are best practices in most Asian countries we could learn from and adapt it to suit our status.

Recently, the government of Ghana signed quite a number of agreements with a car assembling companies that will soon start operations in the country. Obviously, as they come over to start operations, they will be needing some factory hands or workforce to enable them execute their operations. However, given our theoretical-oriented approach to imparting knowledge, one would wonder if we have the skilled workforce to welcome such a developmental initiative. Are we ready for this? Are our graduates up to the task? Or we would have these companies bring in expatriates to take up these jobs?

When I ponder on these, I ask myself that;’ Is Ghana really ready to be on its own let alone promote the Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda?’. Honestly, there is still much to do and I am of the opinion that our first step should be entreating our academic institutions to look at ensuring that our industries are sustained in terms of the needed workforce.

This is a clarion call on academia and industry as well as policy makers to step up and ensure that we are meeting the needs of the 21st century market in terms of human resource. All stakeholders including the Ghana Education Service, National Accreditation Board, Technical University Board, The Ministry of Education and any other institution that has an influence on the academic fortunes of this nation have a role to play and should do so to ensure a better systems and structures are put in place for our common good. Until this is duly done, our institutions of higher learning will continue to churn out unskilled or unemployable graduates who cannot fit for purpose in industry or compete on the global stage with their counterparts from developed countries.

Our country stands to benefit immensely when academia, industry and policy makers collaborate for a cause such as this. A partnership like that will ensure that academia gets to enrich its teaching and research, get financial support or funding for its projects, become a source for knowledge and empirical data and graduates get job offers.

Industry on its part benefits by sourcing latest technological advances from new ideas, access to laboratory usage for research, partners for risk sharing for basic research, recruitment made easy for industry.

To ensure and promote collaboration between academia, industry and policy makers, I believe a conscious effort should be made by both parties and all other stakeholders involved to establish a partnership that focuses on this cause. A partnership centre should be built where regular seminars or symposiums are held to discuss new ideas and innovations for advancement.

Industry should be deliberate about making inputs in the design of curriculum and regularly contribute to reviewing it to reflect industry required stands.

The approach used in assessing students should also be reviewed to reflect what the real working world needs. Faculty should work on bridging the gap between theory and application by visiting industry with students regularly in order to help them have a hands-on experience each semester. Also, faculty should encourage student internships or bring live projects from industry into colleges for students to partake in and grow through the process. 

Bridging the gap between academia and industry is crucial for this worthy cause and I encourage the authorities in charge to ensure that resources are made available to make it happens. When we make a headway with this initiative, we will as a nation produce students who are better prepared for the prospects and challenges ahead. 

I completed this article with an unrehearsed video interview with University Graduate doing his national service.

Samuel Odoi Laryea is an Entrepreneur and a Lecturer at The School of Technology, GIMPA. He is the CEO of Desiderata Information Systems Limited; the developers of the MedBeds App Download; an android App that enhances healthcare facility visibility and insight by tracking and ensuring connectivity between healthcare practitioners, patients and the public.