Graduates of Nigeria’s university system have been described by some employers as lacking employability skills.
These are a set of skills and behaviours that are necessary for every job, sometimes called soft skills, foundational skills, or work-readiness skills.
Experts blame this lack on increasing neglect of student services on campuses.
Julius A. Okojie, executive secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), represented by Rukayyatu Gurin, director, student support services at the NUC, remarked that it is important to provide support to students in order to blend their academic pursuits with critical skills that will make them more functional in society.
Citing a World Bank report of 2015, Gurin said “despite the large number of graduates produced into the labour market by the tertiary institutions yearly, only 10 per cent get absorbed into the formal sector. The majority are left to the labour market, looking for jobs.
“ It is therefore reasonable that in the midst of current predicaments, institutions are left no option than to equip their students with critical life skills such as creativity and innovation, resourcefulness, inventiveness, leadership and self-confidence.”
Universities are founded to fulfil three basic needs: teaching, research and provision of student services in terms of support and specialist services to enhance student experience whilst in school and after graduation.
However, over the years, the emphasis has been on teaching and research to the neglect of the provision of student services on most Nigerian university campuses. Experts say this has had, and continues to have unpleasant effects on students.
James Makinde, president/vc emeritus Babcock University, noted that students have never been the focal point of the tertiary education in Nigeria, adding that university management often see students as dispensable, this is the reason why each time students protest their neglect, school management sends the students home and shuts down the school.
Makinde contrasted this with the fact that when the Academic Staff Union of Universities strikes, professors and lecturers are not asked to leave the campuses. They would be paid for undone work, whilst they strike and when they return from striking, they expect students to understand a curriculum designed to be delivered in nine will then be delivered within three months.
He contended that, “students are the reason for which universities are established, not knowledge for its sake. It is about time we began to look at ourselves in the mirror. Students should not be mere consumers but producers of knowledge.”
Tope Toogun, CEO Accelerated Learning Systems, bemoaned the present position students occupy in the university systems. Togun said it falls short of global best practices to continue to promote lecturers in a system to continue to produce unemployable graduates.
This was corroborated by Gurpreet Jagpal, director research, enterprise and innovation, and CEO South Bank University Enterprises. Jagpal affirmed that in the United Kingdom, universities are ranked based among other metrics, on the employability of their graduates. “This is measured in terms of how long it takes their graduates to find gainful and meaningful employment. The focus is on students,” Jagpal said.
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU
