The awards showed a 61 per cent increase in the number of students on the list. In all, 299 students received awards with 83 at level 400 implying with handwork the next graduation may record over 70 first class performances from the School.

The Honorary Consul of the Embassy of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in Ghana, Hilton John Mitchell, who was the guest speaker, prioritised honesty and loyalty in the work place as the most priceless core values needed in any organisation to thrive.

He said while ambition and dreams are important, when the honesty test is failed everything fails.

He admonished students and young people to always observe the natural rules of progress to ensure that they do not jump the steps because patience was an asset on the journey to a successful career.

“Don’t be in an unnecessary hurry, crawl before you walk, there are many dangers trying to run without crawling and walking”.

Mr Mitchell praised lecturers and staff for the quality of training given to the students within the environment of discipline and promised to work hard to ensure collaboration between Business Schools in Trinidad and Tobago and UCCSchool of Business.

The director of finance of the Institute of Chartered Accountant Ghana (ICAG) represented her organisation to present both cash and books to the School and awardees. ACCA, CIMA, CITG, CIPS and Chartered Institute of administration and consultancy were all represented.

The Dean of the UCCSchool of Business, Prof. John Gatsi assured the business community and prospective students that management of the School was aware of the task of training to produce globally fit for purpose graduates who can work in multicultural environments with good interpersonal skills, innovation and data skills.

“We are doing our best to integrate foundational and higher level data skills in our programs. We have introduced a 2-credit course called professional development skill at level 400 to consolidate various skills needed in industry and the world of work including skills for writing psychometric tests,” he said.

He said the School of Business has created an environment where programs were developed with close collaboration with professional bodies and constant engagement with industry.

“As a result students pass professional examinations in great numbers just after graduation. We are now working with professional bodies to create a database for the number of our students/ fresh graduates who pass professional exams for our records,” Prof. Gatsi said.