While joblessness remains a scourge that stultifies national progress and kills dreams, graduates do not help matters when they know little or nothing about their latent talents.
Youth unemployment is a hydra-headed monster which, besides killing dreams and spawning social vices, has defied all efforts at a solution over the years. It therefore becomes understandable why the erstwhile Sultan of Sokoto once referred to the scourge as “a time bomb waiting to explode.”
However, employment experts assert that there is a lot more to the problem than job shortages and inadequate government intervention, since many graduates themselves lack the self-esteem that will provide them the means of livelihood that they are suited for.
Anthony Timi Obisesan, a graduate of Electrical Electronics from the University of Benin, for one, opted for his passion, even in the face of attractive job offers begging to be snapped up. So it is only natural that today, Timi is a successful trainer and business coach.
“In a manner of speaking, I have also surprised myself in some regards. Yes, my background is in telecommunications, but somewhere along the line, I discovered that I seem to do more with human beings than machines.
I found out I am more purposeful when dealing with human beings, and a couple of years afterwards, began to take what I would call my ‘hobby’ more seriously. I discovered that you may go to school to read A, but, you are better off at B.
Part of the beauty of freedom is the freedom to choose. So, I opted to spend more time where I believe I can do more. Yes, you could say it is a mixture of passion and vocation,” he says.
The story is the same for Margaret Kachukwu, a geologist, who graduated with a second class upper from the University of Jos. Despite all the opportunities open to her, she chose to pursue a career in her field of choice (public relations). At present, she may not quite have found fulfilment in her career yet, but she is nonetheless breaking new ground.
Meanwhile, the labour market is much rowdier than it was before. Last week, an estimated 120, 000 Nigerian youths completed their mandatory one-year National Youth Service (NYSC) programme. The picture painted by some of them as they were handed their discharge certificates was not so bright.
Some experts and employers insist that today’s graduates lack the requisite skills with which they can surmount the challenges of the Nigerian workplace. But if the assertions of most of them are anything to go by, this crop of graduates cannot entirely take the blame for their lack of employable skills.
Experience and unfolding developments have shown that the standard of education in Nigeria has deteriorated drastically. This is because most tertiary institutions in the country have failed to tailor their programmes to the demands at the workplace. This, arguably, makes graduates ill-prepared for the labour market.
Today, most companies have to train university and polytechnic graduates afresh so they can acquire the skills necessary to fit into their positions. However, some experts do not quite agree that the government is to blame. Rather, they believe that any graduate worth his salt can overcome the unemployment menace through self-discovery.
One of such expert is Joseph Noruwa Edokpolo, a business coach and inspirational speaker.
For Edokpolo, “I think the first thing in overcoming the challenge of youth unemployment is self-belief. You first have to believe that it is possible to succeed in life without necessarily engaging in social vices or cutting corners.”
Though, he concedes that youth unemployment is a huge problem in Nigeria, he nonetheless notes that there is a need to give the youth proper reorientation so they can discover their potentials regardless of their academic backgrounds.
“The first thing is to get them to believe that success is possible without them having to cut corners. Having done that, you then take them through a series of questions that will help them discover their strength and potentials. For instance, this is a football season and everybody is talking about football as a result of the World Cup. If I am a left leg player and somehow, the coach makes me play on the right wing, it is expected that I would be a lousy player.
But if another coach comes and put me on a left wing, I will be a star. In the same way, unfortunately, our education does not prepare us for the reality of life. So part of what I will be telling the youth is to pursue their passion—what they love to do; what they have been celebrated on.
Once they are able to understand this, then, we begin to think how we can make them build their career along their individual gifts. I studied Engineering but here I am doing what I am doing,” he says.
Thinking along the same line, Anita Omoile, principal consultant and CEO of a resources and solutions management firm, hints on the need for schools to go back to counselling.
As a mentor and counsellor, her take is that “people need to be counselled on right career choices to take. The issue of youth unemployment is not only in Nigeria, but the Nigerian situation seems to be key right now.
I read in the paper the other day about the Nigerian leadership initiative where it will look at smart upcoming Nigerians and encourage them, match them up with mentors to be able to help them out with their careers. When you have that in a lot of the schools, you can start to get lots of youngsters developed from the young stage where they want to find themselves in future. You can get them to think outside the box.”
Another human resource expert attributes the high unemployment rate among the youth to absence of skills and knowledge. According to him, since a lot of efforts by past governments in Nigeria to grow the economy have failed, graduates should start thinking or do an inward assessment of their potentials and talents.
“For an individual who leaves school, he should be thinking of what to do to make himself employable. The question should be: what am I naturally good at, or what does the job market consider as value and do I have it? If I do not, how do I acquire it? It is all about discovering your strong points and making the best use of it,” he reveals.
Bamikole Fagbohungbe, an industrial and organisational psychologist at University of Lagos, on the other hand, links the unemployment scourge to the decadence in the educational system.
He says education has become nothing but a meal ticket, noting that no serious attention is paid to quality and relevance. “Imagine a student who attended a university to study Psychology and you find that such a student has never come across Scanner’s box to see how rats behave, which we saw those days.
The facilities are not there; remuneration is inadequate and then the attitude of Nigerians to life is also a big factor. They realise that you do not have to spend all your years in school before you can make it, especially if you can explore the unorthodox method, so why wasting time in school?
All these problems are there and so there is no correlation between what we learn in the university and what we find out there. The university is supposed to be a repository for the theory (pick it there and go to the organisation and start to apply it). But if there is no correlation between the two, what do you apply?
The problem is with the educational system, especially those who run the system,” Fagbohungbe posits. On the way out, he believes the solution is simple, suggesting that Nigeria should tap best international practices.
Youth unemployment is a hydra-headed monster which, besides killing dreams and spawning social vices, has defied all efforts at a solution over the years. It therefore becomes understandable why the erstwhile Sultan of Sokoto once referred to the scourge as “a time bomb waiting to explode.”
However, employment experts assert that there is a lot more to the problem than job shortages and inadequate government intervention, since many graduates themselves lack the self-esteem that will provide them the means of livelihood that they are suited for.
Anthony Timi Obisesan, a graduate of Electrical Electronics from the University of Benin, for one, opted for his passion, even in the face of attractive job offers begging to be snapped up. So it is only natural that today, Timi is a successful trainer and business coach.
“In a manner of speaking, I have also surprised myself in some regards. Yes, my background is in telecommunications, but somewhere along the line, I discovered that I seem to do more with human beings than machines.
I found out I am more purposeful when dealing with human beings, and a couple of years afterwards, began to take what I would call my ‘hobby’ more seriously. I discovered that you may go to school to read A, but, you are better off at B.
Part of the beauty of freedom is the freedom to choose. So, I opted to spend more time where I believe I can do more. Yes, you could say it is a mixture of passion and vocation,” he says.
The story is the same for Margaret Kachukwu, a geologist, who graduated with a second class upper from the University of Jos. Despite all the opportunities open to her, she chose to pursue a career in her field of choice (public relations). At present, she may not quite have found fulfilment in her career yet, but she is nonetheless breaking new ground.
Meanwhile, the labour market is much rowdier than it was before. Last week, an estimated 120, 000 Nigerian youths completed their mandatory one-year National Youth Service (NYSC) programme. The picture painted by some of them as they were handed their discharge certificates was not so bright.
Some experts and employers insist that today’s graduates lack the requisite skills with which they can surmount the challenges of the Nigerian workplace. But if the assertions of most of them are anything to go by, this crop of graduates cannot entirely take the blame for their lack of employable skills.
Experience and unfolding developments have shown that the standard of education in Nigeria has deteriorated drastically. This is because most tertiary institutions in the country have failed to tailor their programmes to the demands at the workplace. This, arguably, makes graduates ill-prepared for the labour market.
Today, most companies have to train university and polytechnic graduates afresh so they can acquire the skills necessary to fit into their positions. However, some experts do not quite agree that the government is to blame. Rather, they believe that any graduate worth his salt can overcome the unemployment menace through self-discovery.
One of such expert is Joseph Noruwa Edokpolo, a business coach and inspirational speaker.
For Edokpolo, “I think the first thing in overcoming the challenge of youth unemployment is self-belief. You first have to believe that it is possible to succeed in life without necessarily engaging in social vices or cutting corners.”
Though, he concedes that youth unemployment is a huge problem in Nigeria, he nonetheless notes that there is a need to give the youth proper reorientation so they can discover their potentials regardless of their academic backgrounds.
“The first thing is to get them to believe that success is possible without them having to cut corners. Having done that, you then take them through a series of questions that will help them discover their strength and potentials. For instance, this is a football season and everybody is talking about football as a result of the World Cup. If I am a left leg player and somehow, the coach makes me play on the right wing, it is expected that I would be a lousy player.
But if another coach comes and put me on a left wing, I will be a star. In the same way, unfortunately, our education does not prepare us for the reality of life. So part of what I will be telling the youth is to pursue their passion—what they love to do; what they have been celebrated on.
Once they are able to understand this, then, we begin to think how we can make them build their career along their individual gifts. I studied Engineering but here I am doing what I am doing,” he says.
Thinking along the same line, Anita Omoile, principal consultant and CEO of a resources and solutions management firm, hints on the need for schools to go back to counselling.
As a mentor and counsellor, her take is that “people need to be counselled on right career choices to take. The issue of youth unemployment is not only in Nigeria, but the Nigerian situation seems to be key right now.
I read in the paper the other day about the Nigerian leadership initiative where it will look at smart upcoming Nigerians and encourage them, match them up with mentors to be able to help them out with their careers. When you have that in a lot of the schools, you can start to get lots of youngsters developed from the young stage where they want to find themselves in future. You can get them to think outside the box.”
Another human resource expert attributes the high unemployment rate among the youth to absence of skills and knowledge. According to him, since a lot of efforts by past governments in Nigeria to grow the economy have failed, graduates should start thinking or do an inward assessment of their potentials and talents.
“For an individual who leaves school, he should be thinking of what to do to make himself employable. The question should be: what am I naturally good at, or what does the job market consider as value and do I have it? If I do not, how do I acquire it? It is all about discovering your strong points and making the best use of it,” he reveals.
Bamikole Fagbohungbe, an industrial and organisational psychologist at University of Lagos, on the other hand, links the unemployment scourge to the decadence in the educational system.
He says education has become nothing but a meal ticket, noting that no serious attention is paid to quality and relevance. “Imagine a student who attended a university to study Psychology and you find that such a student has never come across Scanner’s box to see how rats behave, which we saw those days.
The facilities are not there; remuneration is inadequate and then the attitude of Nigerians to life is also a big factor. They realise that you do not have to spend all your years in school before you can make it, especially if you can explore the unorthodox method, so why wasting time in school?
All these problems are there and so there is no correlation between what we learn in the university and what we find out there. The university is supposed to be a repository for the theory (pick it there and go to the organisation and start to apply it). But if there is no correlation between the two, what do you apply?
The problem is with the educational system, especially those who run the system,” Fagbohungbe posits. On the way out, he believes the solution is simple, suggesting that Nigeria should tap best international practices.
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