In today's world of stiff competition in the labour market, coupled with advanced technology, industries require of students to have job experience before employing them. The challenge here is that the experience being required is not taught in the lecture rooms. The reality is that, it is only gained though hands on the job, thus real world confrontation popularly called industrial attachment a platform for students arm themselves with all the skill, knowledge and demanded experience. This article examines the industrial attachment programmes of polytechnics in Ghana and pertinent issues involved. The paper tackled the problem from four thematic areas; the preparation before the training starts, the perceived challenges encountered, the benefits derived from embarking on the training and suggested strategies to be employed to enhance the programme.

The present study seeks to examine the awareness level of green procurement at the district assemblies in Ghana and also help create the consciousness of implementing and enforcing green procurement in the public sector effectively. The research was carried out in Eighteen (18) District Assemblies in the Western Region of Ghana using non-standard interview as the main data collection technique. The findings of the research revealed that, there are key legislations, standards and regulations regulating the assemblies’ activities on the environment and the society which affect green procurement, though there is no specific law/policy titled green procurement. These key legislations, standards and regulations have contributed to increased awareness of green procurement at the District Assemblies in Western Region tied with the recent introduction of sustainable procurement which has been included in the Public Procurement Amendment Act 2016 (Act 914). However, the study identified that the significant impact of public procurement as a policy instrument on environment appeared not to be clear to the assemblies. It is recommended that the procurement policy and the Act 663/914 should be reformed to reflect green procurement to help the districts in their quest in creating sustainable environment. The district assemblies and EPA should organise joint seminars and workshops to sensitize and create awareness among the assembly’s staff on the benefits of green procurement and the need to adopt it.

Public sector procurement is very significant driver of innovation and currently re-emerging as the most sought after instrument of demand-side innovation policies. Progressively, it has been viewed as having imperative potential to drive innovation; there has been an issue of awareness deficit of public procurement as an innovation policy tool among key stakeholders-policy makers, procurement practitioners and academics particularly in Ghana and Africa. It's in this direction that this study sought to explore the barriers to awareness level of public procurement as an innovation policy tool among the key stakeholders in Ghana. The study adopted both exploratory and cross-sectional survey designs in investigating the barriers. Purposive sampling was used in selecting the sample to help fulfil the predetermined purpose of the study. The study revealed among others the following: low level of education as a major challenge to innovation in Ghana and developing nations, ISSN 2162-4860 2016 www.macrothink.org/ber 14 limited budgets for education in training of high-skill specialist for promotion of innovation, lack of coordination across agencies on innovation policies (incoherent public policies), poor governance and business conditions affecting awareness level, lack of public sector support of innovation, no policy direction as to the use of public procurement to stimulate innovation in Ghana. The study also showed a lack of link between science and innovation in Ghana impeding the awareness level among the key stakeholders. The study recommends performance appraisal and institutional performance reviews for management of education to improve the level of education in Ghana and the curriculum for VTE level should be practical-oriented. They should also increase the funding of education in general and VTE in particular. Agencies responsible for STI should be strengthened to coordinate all policies intended to influence innovation in Ghana and put together a coherent policy competent enough to capturing innovation where public procurement policy, R&D policies and innovation policies will be connected together. Business and Economic Research

Free movement of goods and people has been at the heart of ECOWAS regional integration process and past and current efforts at regional integration have often focused on removing barriers to free trade in the region to increase the free movement of goods, people among others across the ECOWAS sub-region. The object of the inquiry of this study was then to a large extent to examine the prospects for freight and logistics companies in operationalisation of the ECOWAS protocol on free movement of goods and persons. The methodology used is qualitative and the interview adopted was non-standardised. From the interviews the findings presented suggest that the introduction of the ECOWAS protocol on free movement has promoted trade within the West African sub-region and it has the potential to stimulate growth and profitability in the freight and logistics industry. The study also among others identified certain indicators showcasing prospects for freight and logistics companies included; higher trade volumes as local economies diversify and expand, growing population within the subregion, domestic consumer demand increasingly wants finished products from abroad, fastgrowing global demand for natural resources from West Africa escalates, infrastructure improves, boosts intra-West African Sub-regional trade. The study recommends that an incorporated transportation network, which is essential for the ECOWAS region must be built and maintained, to smooth the progress of the protocol and the distribution of goods and services. The infrastructure shortfall in many member states must be addressed and road, rail, air and sea networks improved and maintained. And member state should be encouraged to