Dr. Esi E. Ansah, an Entrepreneur and Corporate Trainer , has called on churches, mosques, and community organizations to take a more active role in career guidance, counselling, and job matching for young people, arguing that public universities alone cannot shoulder the burden of preparing students for the job market.
Speaking during an X-Space discussion on Life After National Service organized by The High Street Journal and Axis Human Capital, Dr. Ansa said the rising numbers in tertiary institutions make it difficult for schools to provide adequate career support to all students.
“My comment goes back to your question about whether the tertiary institutions are overloaded and so may not be able to provide the support that students need. And I think we need to shift the burden, share the burden,” she said.
According to her, religious and community platforms already host large numbers of young job seekers and professionals who can contribute to bridging the gap between graduates and employers. “There are many churches, mosques, spaces, different organizations, communities who have young people who are job hunting, who have employers who are looking for employees, people to hire. And so it’s a good thing for us to encourage some of these different communities to do that matchmaking.”
She suggested that leaders within these spaces should not wait for universities or companies to take the lead. “But then there are professionals who are in these spaces as well. Professionals in these churches, mosques. We can pull them together, help them to think of opportunities, prepare for opportunities, bring the employers and employees together.”
Dr. Ansah stressed that creativity is needed in building an ecosystem of mutual support, where professional networks within religious and social institutions complement universities and human resource professionals. “It might sound like I’m talking HR companies out of a job, but I think the need and the gap is so overwhelming. The longer we leave it to just the tertiary institutions, the more overburdened they become, the less prepared students are, and we all suffer for it.”
She also cautioned against young people turning to entrepreneurship for the wrong reasons. “We want to make sure that young people who are going into entrepreneurial ventures are doing so because they found a problem, and they feel they can provide a solution and build something out of it. Not just because they are not willing or humble enough to work with somebody else and be told what to do.”
She added that early professional experience is often the best foundation for entrepreneurship. “Sometimes when you’re starting out, working elsewhere and learning what should be done or shouldn’t be done, is the best way of preparing yourself for your own entrepreneurial venture so that you know what to do and what not to do when you get started.”
