Stop Producing Managers for Industries That Do Not Exist

If I were offered a fully funded scholarship today to pursue a master’s degree at an Ivy League university, or free world-class training in sewing, welding, carpentry, upholstery, confectionery, toy making, apiculture, leathercraft, or dairying, I would choose the vocational training without hesitation. Not because education is unimportant. Because reality is.

Ghana has reached a point where common sense must be allowed to enter the room. For decades, we have worshipped certificates as if they possess magical powers. We have elevated degrees above competence, theory above production, and titles above usefulness. The result is visible everywhere: thousands of graduates, thousands of unemployed people, thousands of master’s degree holders, and thousands still looking for work.

Some are now collecting degrees the way children collect football stickers. One master’s degree. Two master’s degrees. Three master’s degrees. Yet they remain unemployed and confused about why employers are not chasing them. At some point, somebody must ask a rude question: are we educating people or simply helping them postpone unemployment?

The uncomfortable truth is that economies are built by people who make things, repair things, grow things, process things, transport things, and sell things. An economy cannot survive on PowerPoint presentations. A nation cannot industrialise through seminars. Prosperity does not emerge from conference halls. It emerges from workshops, factories, farms, laboratories, construction sites, and small businesses.

What exactly is the essence of business administration when there are few businesses to administer? What is the purpose of human resource management when there are no meaningful enterprises creating jobs for human resources to manage? Who exactly are all these managers supposed to manage? Other unemployed graduates?

The absurdity has become normal. We proudly produce thousands of administrators while importing furniture. We graduate thousands of managers while importing doors. We train thousands of professionals while importing simple processed foods. We produce armies of certificate holders while struggling to find skilled welders, carpenters, electricians, mechanics, upholsterers, dairy processors, leatherworkers, and manufacturers. Then we gather in conferences to discuss youth unemployment as if it arrived from outer space.

The problem is not mysterious. A country cannot consume what it does not produce. A country cannot manage what it has not created. A country cannot supervise industries that do not exist. The sequence matters. First create businesses. Then manage them. First build industries. Then administer them. First produce wealth. Then discuss how to allocate it.

Yet Ghana has spent years trying to reverse this order. We are training captains without ships, pilots without aircraft, managers without enterprises, and human resource experts without humans employed in productive industries. It would be funny if it were not so expensive.

The greatest tragedy is that many of these degrees are financed directly or indirectly by taxpayers. Citizens fund years of education only to discover that the economy has little practical use for much of what has been studied. Meanwhile, a skilled carpenter can find work. A skilled welder can create work. A skilled leatherworker can build a brand. A skilled dairy processor can establish a factory. A skilled apiculturist can create an export business. A skilled craftsperson can employ others. That is how economies grow.

Not through endless production of certificates, but through the production of value.

Ghana does not suffer from a shortage of degrees. Ghana suffers from a shortage of productive capacity. Until we recognise that distinction, we will continue producing highly educated unemployment while pretending we are developing.

And that, frankly, is nonsense.

 

By Kwame Sowu

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: The author, Kwame Sowu Jnr, is a seasoned professional with a diverse background in business and leadership. He is a former Chairman of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board. Kwame is a hospitality investor with thriving businesses across the regions.