Finance and Policy Economic Analyst, Senyo Hosi, has asserted that reading and writing is not a skill one acquires but just a language we are learning.
According to him, this awareness hit him quite early, so while in school he used to tell everyone that as university graduates they were not entitled to anything but an opportunity to acquire a real skill.
In an interview with Rev. Erskine on Y107.9FM’s YLeaderboard Series he said, “As a graduate, you come into the work space with very little skills. Reading and writing is not a special skill so make no mistake and don’t fool yourself. That’s somebody’s first language. Reading and writing English is not a skill that you should get so freaked out about but how you translate that into something of impact in that space is what matters”.
Using China as an example he emphasized that although English is not spoken in China they are one of the few countries making progress in the world.
“So if you speak English that’s not what’s really going to transform you because it’s just a language. We have to pick skills” he said.
Remembering his time as a sales executive he stated that, he used to fill his truck with canned tuna and go shop to shop merchandising and selling whiles his colleagues thought that as a graduate you have to be in an office and have the rest go do the work.
“I realized that they were a joke and generally we have a problem with our orientation and our education. We have it all totally messed up and all that is an inherited orientation when Ghana was in its early stage and didn’t have much civil service skills, industry skills because at that time almost everybody who could read and write was taken and it was actually the key feature to get you in so everybody felt this is what you’re entitled” he added.
Senyo believes that the world owes you nothing but rather you owe the world something because you have to leave the world a better place for those after you.
“Hence you are rather entitled to opportunities to impact so you have to invest in the skills that help you impact the world” he addressed.
By: Gyamfuah Owusu-Ackom