Amidst the prevailing challenge of ill equipped graduate and shortfalls in industry ready study, industry watchers have advocated for support by private organisations and individuals to alleviate the deplorable standard of education in the country, and ensure that graduates of tertiary institutions are well groomed to enable them fit into the required competencies in the labour market.
Experts in their various response expressed concerns on the quality of graduates of Nigerian higher institutions, which cumulates in their rejection by employers of labour, leading to high level of unemployment in the country.
Fola Ogunsola, an educationist observe that many of Nigerian graduates are ill-equipped and do not possess employable skills that will make them acceptable to the demand at the workplace.
According to her, “In a country where almost everyone thinks and talks about unemployment, conveying the message of employability of most graduates of our universities may be a Herculean task. However, the time to face the challenge of graduate unemployment, which is an antecedent of their employability status, is now.
“The bulk of the products of our universities have been found to be unemployable due to skill gap and ill-preparation for the task ahead of them in the market place. This inevitably behooves of graduates to take extra steps to ensure that they get befitting places to train, test and triumph after school.
She further said while Nigerian universities are churning out close to a million graduates of different disciplines every year, most of what is taught in the classroom in the higher institutions of learning across the country constitutes less than 30 percent of what is required to make a meaningful impact in the marketplace.
“We can no longer shy away from the deplorable state of the graduates of Nigerian universities. I strongly believe that we should not invest our time in blame games. Our educational system, family values, individual roles contributed in no small measure to what we have as products of our universities today,” Ogunsola noted.
In her view, the employability status of Nigerian graduates, both in terms of basic skills and attitude, extends the expectation gap between what these products have to offer and what the market place requires and is ready to pay for.
“The fact is that the market place is becoming more demanding and volatile daily. It is very transitory and so fickle that only appropriate and capable (or at least trainable) hands can fit in and on a sustainable level. Only little success can be achieved from pressing buttons to get jobs, much is required to keep it.”
Olabiyi Durojaiye, an industry expert observe that owing to the situation our educational system is at the moment, it will not be out of place for collaborate effort among all stakeholders to address the challenge.
We must encourage collaborative efforts designed to address gaps in our educational system knowing that government has rescind in its responsibility.
“We need to painstakingly work together with both the academia and the accessible private sector to tackle this malady”, he said.
KELECHI EWUZIE
