PUBLISHING STUDIES GRADUATES MAKE IN-ROADS (PAGE 29, JAN 5)

THE Publishing Studies Programme at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), initiated 25 years ago, is making great impact in the operations of the publishing industry in the country.
The department has so far turned out 955 graduates.
Mr Isaac Kofi Appiah, a lecturer at the Publishing Studies Department of KNUST, who made this observation, said research conducted last year revealed that 234 graduates of the department, out of the 350 sampled, were working in publishing—related establishments.
Mr Appiah said this when he presented a paper on the topic “The role of the publishing training on industry over the past 25 years”, at a public lecture at KNUST in Kumasi on Thursday.
He said 61 of the graduates were also found in teaching at various educational institutions, while 55 were in other institutions.
Mr Appiah, who is a former head of department of the programme, said the results from the research attested to the fact that the graduates from the publishing programme had had a positive impact on the industry.
He therefore called for the industrial attachment module of the programme to be extended to cover one academic year to enable students to acquire more industrial experience before they graduate.
Mr Appiah disclosed that there was the need for lecturers to upgrade themselves in terms of practical exposure so that they would keep abreast of state-of-the-art technology.
For instance, he said, those in the areas of design and printing faced an uphill task in keeping up with technology as some of the equipment for their work became outmoded frequently.
Rev. Dr Edem Kweku Tettey, another lecturer at the department, presenting a paper on the topic “attaining professionalism in the book industry of Ghana: Where are you going?, called on the government and other stakeholders in the book Industry to work towards giving legal backing to publishing and printing activities.
He, therefore, called for the formation of a professional body to control and direct activities involved in the book and the publishing industry in the country, which he believed could be a great source of revenue for the country.