By Christian Appolos
In Nigeria, the high rate of youth unemployment and job creation problems are intertwined with the attendant consequences of a large number of graduates churned out of the universities yearly. Besides, the fact that aggressive jobs creation was apparently neglected by successive governments in the recent past, the widely held views of stakeholders in the labour market is that many graduates in Nigeria lack employability skills.
Corroborating the foregoing perspective, the Vice Chancellor of Kwara State University, Prof. Muhammed Mustapha Akanbi (SAN), in a recent interview with The Labour, stated that among the major problems affecting both Nigeria’s development and graduates from getting jobs or creating one, is the fact that almost all university graduates in the country are not exposed to other employability skills beside classroom knowledge.
Prof. Akanbi, further explained that for a graduate to bagged a First-Class degree, but lack other skills is disadvantageous in the world today. He went on to say; “World over, acquiring other employability skills has proven to be key to job security, decent work which is the future of the world of work. The huge deficit of skills among Nigerian graduates is a big contributor to the country’s high rate of unemployment”
Relatively, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) strongly believes that skills are sacrosanct to fighting unemployment and ensuring a decent future world of work. And in a 2013 publication titled: Enhancing youth employability: What? Why? and How? Guide to core work skills, by Laura Brewer, ILO’s Skills and Employability Department, the world number one labour voice, said; “equipping the youths with skills, and importantly include employability skills to formal education curriculum is a major step to bridging unemployment gab and ensuring healthy living and a safer society.”
Interestingly in keeping with with ILO position, that “Developing core employability skills should be part of quality basic education; and should ensure that learning practices equip people with the right skills for work”, the Kwara State University Malete (KWASU), in August 2009, took some pragmatic steps that changed the narrative by establishing the Centre for Entrepreneurship, now known as Centre for Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training (CTVET), the first of its kind in a Nigerian University; with a view to ensuring that graduates from the ivory tower are imbued with requisite employability skills, and most importantly become job creators and not seekers.
According to Prof. Akanbi, in a chat with The Labour during a recent bi-monthly media parley with Directors of Centres in the University, “KWASU in its ingenuity is ascertainably breeding a new set of Nigerian graduates who have so far shown that new innovations that would create jobs and engender development are on the way.
“We encourage our students to engage in different entrepreneur skills, acquire, hold and consider all certificates important. It does not make any sense if you are a first class graduate and you are looking for a job. And I mean First class in any programme.”
Furthermore, the Acting Director of the CTVET, Sunday Ojo, Ph.D, in his presentation at the parley enthusiastically explained; “The Centre is charged with the responsibility to prepare KWASU Students to be able to: identify and recognize opportunities, take risks in a very calculated fashion that shifts the odds in their favour, balance the risk with the potential reward, devise indigenous strategies to harness and utilize available limited resources, and create enterprises to take advantage of the wave of vocational and technological innovations and numerous business opportunities in the business environment.
“Our mission as a centre is to produce a corps of successful entrepreneurs/leaders driven by intense commitment and determined perseverance, innovation, integrity and competitive desire to excel, by seeking opportunities and making a difference in the final outcomes of their ventures and lives in the global environment.”
Dr. Ojo further also said that the Centre offers skills program such; “Enterprise Creation and Skill Acquisition (ECSA) Programme, a (Proficiency Certificate Programme for ALL Undergraduate Students). The programme is designed to empower every undergraduate student of Kwara State University through their re-orientation towards enterprise and job creation using vocational and technical skill acquisition with the objective of producing graduates that are job creators and not job seekers.
“The University Senate has therefore made it mandatory for all Kwara State University students, irrespective of their programme of study, to successfully pass through this programme before graduation. Successfully students receive Proficiency Certificate in Entrepreneurship with specialization in their vocation of choice. The resource personnel for the teaching of this course is therefore as determined by the Centre and would be drawn from within and outside the University.
“Programme is made up of the following five (5) stages compulsory for ALL KWASU UNDERGRADUTE STUDENTS before graduation: Innovation and Product Development, Enterprise Creation and Development, Entrepreneurship Mentorship, Enterprise Resource Planning, Entrepreneurship Practice.”
Dr. Ojo also said; “The following emerging skills will be given special consideration in form of Specialized Professional Training (for Three Months) for both Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and skills acquisition purposes: Data Analytics,
Blockchain, AI/Machine Learning, Big Data, Cloud Computing, IoT, Cyber Security, Web, App, Design and Development (Software), Graphic/AutoCAD Design, Solar Panel/Appliances, Robotics, Programming, Agrotech, Admin-tech, Bio-tech, Drone-tech,Digital Sales/Marketing Financial Modelling, Project Management, Organizational Development.
To this end, the worsening harsh economic realities occasioned by COVID-19, and the existing alarming rate of unemployment among youths in Nigeria, indicate that decisive actions must be taken to ensure that both students and graduates in Nigeria are equipped with contemporary skills as a foundational tool for a decent work.
Therefore, the innovative steps being taken by authorities of the KWASU years back to establish entrepreneurship centre, deserves accolades and requires some supports from the Federal government of Nigeria, and collaborations with international organizations such as the ILO and other development partners.
In the words of Christine Evans-Klock, the Director Skills and Employability Department of the ILO, “Educators and employers together are the key to defining and delivering the skills for a better future of work.” Today with the renewed efforts of Prof. Akanbi, the present Vice Chancellor of Kwara State University, the school’s Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training centre, is empowering students (Nigeria’s future), and ensuring they are skilled with competencies that are increasingly important for success in an ever more complex and demanding world.
