UNPROFESSIONALISM, OUR BANE

The formal system of education imparts knowledge in a field of endeavour by the use of trained teachers, who have undergone several years of schooling themselves, during which time they have acquired both theoretical and some practical knowledge in a particular field of endeavour in a more formal enabling environment. With the informal system, skill acquisition stems from watching how it is done. It directly involves practical knowledge acquisition from years of apprenticeship without one necessarily understanding the theories behind the skill acquired.

Both system of education come with various advantages and disadvantages. The informal system has over the years enabled thousands or perhaps millions of people gain employment through skill acquisition but has also to an extent encouraged unprofessionalism. Most people, through this system obtain knowledge on how a particular thing is done; in an event where a change is  necessary, may not be able to make a useful input since the theory behind something being  done in a particular way is unknown. It does not encourage dynamism.

This trend can be seen in various sectors of our economy but the sector that affects us directly is the industry (construction). This is one of the major contributing sectors of our economy and hence it’s of grave importance that we take a critical look at this trend that is becoming the norm of the day. The building block of the economy in Ghana involves three main sectors: agriculture, industry (construction, manufacturing etc) and services with the bulk of employment being in the construction industry.

Construction involves the creation of infrastructure for the benefit of the populace. The construction industry can be grouped into the building and civil setup. The building sector as the name implies refers mainly to the construction of buildings (masonry, woodworks etc.) whiles the civil sector involves the planning, design and construction of roads, bridges, airports, railways, dams etc.

For all these to work effectively, both sectors must coordinate. For these sectors to be managed effectively also, various professionals of high expertise must be called into play. These professionals include the Architect, Civil engineer, Building technologist, Quantity surveyor, Electrical engineer, Materials engineer, Draftsman, etc. A professional can be described as one, with a high degree of skill or competence and whose occupation requires extensive education or specialized training in a particular field of endeavour.

A professional might indeed have a high fee as compared to the ordinary artisan but the assurance here is that a well thought-out design will be implemented. The result at the end of the day will undoubtedly be the best taking into consideration safety, economy and efficiency.

Examining the current trend around us, it is evident that a lot of the infrastructural development that has sprung up in recent times has been done without employing these professionals: the main excuse being financial. Are we then saying that money is of value to us than our lives?

One will argue that structures have been built and are functioning effectively without consulting the so-called professionals. Yes, the argument is valid but have you thought of the danger that you live in each day? Unknowingly, death stares at us all the time.

Most of these artisans work from experience; the experience gained by their masters but not necessarily themselves; the experience grained from doing one thing in a particular way for a long time but not understanding the logic behind it. What happens if conditions change? These structures are standing today but have you thought of tomorrow? Should these structures fail, have you thought of the extra money that will be spent on renovation and possible re-construction? Talk about the loss of life; can life be replaced? Again, we cannot rule out the fact that although some people did not receive any form of tertiary or extensive education in their field of endeavour, their knowledgebase and skills can be likened to a professional. They are indeed professionals of their own capacity.

In recent times, there have been a lot of natural disasters globally and even our own country. Various earthquakes have struck various countries of alarming magnitudes leaving irreparable damage to property and ultimately, loss of life. Let us talk about the floods, hurricanes and tsunamis that have occurred. One would think that it is so far from us and hence cannot be bothered but the weather is unpredictable and so are disasters. Disasters occur because they are things we don’t plan for. Earthquakes can occur anywhere and at anytime! Earthquakes are unpredictable! All that is needed is tectonic plate movement or pressure buildup along fault planes in the underlying soil/rock. Talk about the damages that have occurred in these countries, mostly found in poor regions. Have we sat down to ask the question why the damages recorded were so high in poor areas?

A lot of these damages occurred in very poor neighbourhoods, cities and even countries e.g. Haiti. These grave damages were as a result of the bad construction works that were carried out in these places. They did not have enough money and hence employed poor construction methods, making use of cheap labour and construction materials with no form of planning whatsoever! Some could afford but just chose to be cheap. The situation might have been different had a highly skilled professional been employed notwithstanding the cost.

This list can go on without end but until something is done by us, we might one day face the predicament these countries have faced and still face or something even worse.

Back home in Ghana, the major natural disaster that confronts us each year is the floods and even with that, we can all attest to the damages these have caused over the years; loss of life and property. Various structures have collapsed overnight with people drawing different conclusions. The answer is simple. The professionals were not sought and hence, the right design, materials and method of construction was not applied. Let us leave superstitions behind and do the right thing. God helps those who help themselves.

Various agencies and departments have been established in the country to enforce professionalism from one sector of the economy to the other but as we can well imagine, these agencies are not functioning as they should.

In the construction industry, the agencies responsible are mainly governmental. For transportation; the ministry of transportation, for housing; the ministry of works and housing. These are just two of the sector ministries but it can be said that their responsibilities are extensive, should they enforce the code of ethics.

The construction industry these days is such that any one who has the financial capacity after obtaining the necessary documents calls himself a contractor. A lot of these contractors have no prior knowledge in the chosen field of construction. Although the requirement for establishment of a construction firm requires a list of workers and their various qualifications among others, these contractors manage to come up with fake documentation and are given the nod at the end of the day. The end results are the bad roads and building works we see around us each day. For the contractor to employ a qualified professional, he’d rather employ an unskilled labour and then pay less than he would have to pay a professional although the contract sum is enough to cater for such expenses. More stringent measures should be put in place to ensure that these contractors employ professionals.

These are some of the sad realities around us. People are investing several years in school, learning all that they need to know in a particular field of endeavour, only to end up jobless at the end of the day simply because we are not ready to part with some extra money to ensure that our best interest is served. We can as usual, point accusing fingers at the government for failing to enforce the laws that have been created to ensure professionalism but again, we are all to blame. We encourage this all the time. It is true that law enforcement on the part of the government is terrible but as citizens, let us raise our voices and speak up on this issue! Even the very governmental monitoring and law enforcement agencies set up are not being professional. Let us not endorse shoddy works! We should insist on our rights for the best! It is high time we stop putting square pegs in round holes! Let us make a good investment today! Remember: Nothing good comes cheap!

The day you decide to pocket some money and employ the unskilled labour for a task that requires highly skilled labour is the very day you endorse unprofessionalism. It is high time we take this seriously. We should always learn from what happens to others rather than wait for it to happen to us in order to learn from the experience. Experience is not always the best teacher. It can leave you scarred and embittered for life!

Published: Daily Graphic (August 18^th, 2010).