Graduates lack ‘quality education’

Business

BUSINESShouses have noticed that graduates entering the workforce lacked “quality education”.
PNG Business Council executive director Douveri Henao outlined plans which the council would present to the new government.
Henao on Thursday revealed a plan that the council had worked on following consultations with businesshouses.
He said the areas were the provision of infrastructure and basic services, government and regulation, broadening the industry base, and productivity and employment.
Under productivity and employment, the businesshouses highlighted that education was more focused on quantity rather than quality.
“We have a very young population. Some of the statistics are saying that half of PNG’s population is under 25,” Henao said.
“For the optimist, this is a social dividend. A young population can do so much. You can educate them and they can be very productive in the market place.
“What we’ve observed is that there is no simple strategy in dealing with productivity in the country.
“We feel that, unlike the other three, where things have started and experimented, this is the one that hardly has any strategic policy thinking.
“Of course we’ve got education institutions but there has been very limited thinking on how we can move a child from one place on the education scale to the productivity scale.”
Henao said that when we look at PNG’s population of about eight million, the country is looking at four million people “that we haven’t  developed the future for.”
He acknowledged efforts put in by businesses to train their employees.
“Businesses consistently have a provision of staff capacity because what’s come out of schools and universities, it’s not sufficient for them to walk in and start work,” he said.
“It’s not a government’s policy on education. It’s actually the mindset.
“We want the child to come out being a decent person.
“It’s the qualitative side that we want to invest some ideas on how best we can achieve that. It’s not necessarily academically intelligent or they have incredible grades, it’s about getting the workforce ready.”