The youth unemployment rate in Sub-Saharan Africa has been cited by the World Bank as standing at around 21%, the second highest rate in the world after the Middle East and North Africa and 3.5 times higher than the adult unemployment rate in the region.

Ghana has not been spared of this major socio-economic problem with worsening graduate unemployment situation in the country. Several factors account for high youth unemployment in Africa, including low quality of education and low levels of educational attainment, weak economic growth and investment, and a mismatch between labor market needs and available skills.

Graduate unemployment has taken a new dimension as young people lack the opportunity to gain formal work experience whilst in tertiary education and a lack of general and job-related skills also puts young people at a disadvantage. Work-place attitudinal problems of the few students privileged to have been offered internship opportunities have been cited by Human Resource Practitioners as one key reason for the hesitation to absorb interns. Void of resourcefulness and commitment to match the demands of the job, the obvious result is employers’ hesitation to guarantee internship positions either during graduate studies or soon afterwards. That is not to exclude the challenges of slow growth of industry.
Admittedly, Ghana’s labour supply is confronted with huge challenges such as relevance, quality and preparedness exerting huge pressure on the demand side that is already constraint by aching factors including slow growth or stagnant positions.

Meanwhile, the youth population in Sub-Saharan Africa is growing. The youth labour force in our sub-Saharan region is further projected by the World Bank to grow by 28.2% between 2003 and 2015, compared with a mere 3.8% increase in South East Asia and a decline of 3.1% in industrialized economies. With the about 230,000 new graduate entrants each year, and huge deficit of skill demand indicating excess supply of tertiary graduates, Ghana has not been left out of the hook of an ominous situation. The result of a comprehensive analysis of Ghanaian labour market for graduates as shown in Table 1.1 provides estimates of excess supply of university graduates in the Ghanaian labour market for 1999-2000. Given the phenomenal increase in the number of accredited private universities between 2000-2008, the related flexible time table and much relaxed entry requirements has witnessed high intake and eventual increased in the number of new entrants to the labour market far in excess of what is projected in Table 1.1.

 

Table 1.1: Estimates of Excess Supply of University Graduates in the Ghanaian Labour Market for Selected Courses, 1999-2000

	Arts/Social Sciences	Medical and Health	Engineering	Administration	Agriculture
Final Year Enrollment (N)	2858	216	274	461	471
Excess as a Ratio of final year enrollment (excluding central government demand but includes public agencies demand)	0.95	0.54	0.50	0.37	0.96
Excess as a Ratio of final year enrollment (40% central government demand assumed of tertiary education output and held constant annually)	0.58	(0.46)	0.10	(0.03)	0.56

Source: Analytical Study of the Labour Market for Graduates in Ghana, Dr. Kwabia Boateng, Prof. E. Ofori-Sarpong, 2001
Indications are that this population bulge will have significant impact on youth employment and require greater attention as such to job creation. At the same time, the prospects of Ghana experiencing increased economic development cannot be ruled out. The anticipated progress along with recent demographic trends, demonstrates real potential for increased labor market activities through public-private-civil society partnerships if we are to make strides in addressing graduate unemployment. A situation of “Employers’ Market” is no excuse for placing value on what jobs are offered and under what working conditions these are done:

the ideals of decent work as a right must be espoused.
Appreciating the valuable but enormity of the task ahead, Youth Bridge Foundation is leading an initiative involving Trade Union Congress (TUC-Ghana) and Ghana Employers’ Association for: 

(1) Initial two preliminary consultative meetings of key stakeholders and
(2) on-campus Road Shows and Interactive Job Fairs
(3) Young Employees Platform
(4) Sustainable Enterprise Development (SED) Project
to address the aging problem of graduate unemployment from a holistic approach.

The financial and logistical support to implement this INTEGRATED YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY PROJECT (IYEP-Ghana) to be implemented first in Ghana and subsequently introduced in post-conflict countries Liberia and Sierra Leone is being sought.    

2.0  OBJECTIVES
Our motivation for initiating the project is anchored on the conviction and evidence from many parts of the world that youth development is shaped profoundly by the presence or absence of many different factors including socio-economic information, educational and employment opportunities and personal challenges.
The project primarily seeks to achieve the following objectives:

1. Help bridge the education-employment information gap
2. Create the platform to dialogue with various stakeholders to develop strategies to effectively deal with

        unemployment and graduate employability in Ghana

• Promote Decent Work for young employees to ensure better wages and work conditions
• Encourage free Enterprise Development as alternate source of employment creation
• Promote greater understanding of Labour needs of the country through information sharing and

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