The problem of unemployment among catering graduates from the Technical Universities and Polytechnics is the lack of information on areas and/ or possibility of collaboration and partnerships with the hospitality industry to produce and market their research products. The main purpose of the study was to obtain information to empower graduates from hospitality institutions on areas of collaboration to address unemployment. The study design employed in the research was a descriptive cross-sectional survey. The study revealed that majority (56.5%) of the sampled graduate respondents was female and 43.5% were male. The respondent Managers/ Manageresses of hotels were 73% males and 27% females. About 52% of the Catering graduates sampled were employed whilst 48% were not. However, out of the 52% graduates employed, only one-quarter self-employed (i.e. setup and operating their own facilities), the rest 75% worked as employees in other agencies. Only 15% of respondent Managers/ Manageresses of hotels were ever approached by catering graduates for partnership or collaboration. About 17% of catering graduates sampled ever made attempts seeking partnership with Managers/ Manageresses of hotels within the metropolis even though 70% of the practitioners were willing and ready for their partnership. Awareness level among Managers/ Manageresses of the hospitality facilities about products of final year catering students was low, only 36% whilst 64% were unaware of such products. The majority (76%) of Managers/ Manageresses of hospitality facilities sampled were never invited to final year catering students’ products exhibitions. Collaboration between the Tamale Technical University and the hospitality industry players was good at time of the research, but was not holistic enough to engender jobs creation for graduates. The study revealed that, overall, 74% of final year students picked their research problems just to meet the requirements of the academic work but had not considered any future enterprise creation from them. About 69% of catering graduates ‘agree’ that their research products could compete well with similar products on the market; 22% ‘disagree’ whilst 9% ‘neither agree nor disagree’. Seventy eight per cent trusted in their products being accepted by industry and 22% ‘neither agree nor disagree’. Ten per cent of Managers/ Manageresses sampled were willing to collaborate with graduates by offering them work space to produce their products for retail elsewhere; 4% willing to collaborate by offering them work space to produce and as well retail the products; and 86% willing to collaborate by contributing resources to commercialise the research products. Approximately 83% of graduates mentioned lack of capital preventing them from starting their own enterprises and 13% mentioned lack of technical support. A total of 87% of the graduates apart from the commercial banks had no knowledge of agencies established to support graduates intending to set up their own enterprises. The study recommends that Tamale Technical University should restrategise their collaboration plans with hospitality operators in the metropolis in a manner that will engender job creation for its graduates and strengthen the partnership by involving practitioners more during exhibitions; the university must begin to identify potential research products and use them to initiate start up enterprises using the graduates; government agencies set up to support graduates interested in operating their own enterprises must make the agencies prominent on tertiary institutions campuses.
