In
Nigeria, though accurate data on unemployment is hard to come by, there is no
mistaking the fact that the country is today faced with very high unemployment
rate. The every day sight of the growing army of unemployed youths roaming the
streets with despair written on their faces attests to the gravity of the job
market situation in Nigeria.
Graduate unemployment, not to talk of secondary
school leavers has reached a frightening level. Year in year out our tertiary
institutions turn out tens of thousands of degree and diploma holders but only
a tiny fraction find jobs, any job for that matter. Some of the principal keys
responsible for the growing unemployment in Nigeria include
THE SLOW RATE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH.
The
economy is not growing fast enough to absorb the high number of people, especially
graduates coming into the job market. This is the classical case of supply out-stripping
demand. Understandably, while the arts and humanities still play important role
in development, the principal road to robust and long lasting development is inarguably
via science and technology. In other words, in the development process, science
ought to receive a pre-eminent place above everything else because it undoubtedly
under pins every aspect of human development. The challenges of job creation,
graduate unemployment, low growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product and high
population growth rate have therefore been advanced as critical factors
militating against the rapid industrialization of Nigeria.
INADEQUATE SKILLS
Our
university and other tertiary institutions are not training people with
appropriate skills required for a century competitive global economy dominated
by Information Technology. Observation however suggests that employment
opportunities for graduates are not mainly a function of the employment system
and its requirement but also of the quantitative structural skill linkages. It
has been noted as well that in many countries, the views and the reputation of
certain institutions and departments influence the employability of their
students. Hence some institutions of higher learning try to maintain higher
competitive edge for their graduates by including different professional
experiences during the course of study.
HIGH EXPECTATIONS OF THE FRESH GRADUATES
Graduate
unemployment is growing daily and at an accelerated rate in Nigeria, yet the
strength of student enrolment and graduate output of the institutions of higher
learning are growing rapidly. Many graduates of the higher educational
institutions resent public service employment especially the teaching
profession, even though vacancies exist in such jobs at various levels. The
common ambition of most fresh students’ graduates is to be employed in the oil
companies or the banks. These are popular because of their much higher pay.
Many graduates are even willing to accept retraining in order to be employed in
the oil company or the banks and some of them do train fresh graduates to
acquire relevant skills before job placement. Some university students came
into university as employees of establishments on in-service training. This
category of students have the opportunity of going straight to a job
immediately they graduate. Majority of the graduates who had no prior
experience and work may have some delay in entering the workforce. The only
prospect of jobs for fresh graduates is their participation in the National
Youth Service Corps (NYSC). The graduates try to impress the perspective
employer during the one-year period of NYSC so as to have some edge over others
during recruitment exercise.
RECRUITMENT REQUIREMENTS
Employers’
expectations are varied and cannot easily be determined because of the numerous
factors that may influence the need for recruitment or the recruitment
requirement. Sometimes, employers’ views about the reputation of certain
institutions and departments may tend to influence recruitment, hence, some
institutions of higher education consequently try to ensure higher competitive
edge for their graduates by establishing some direct professional experiences
during the students’ course of study (learning visits, internships).
THE QUEST FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
Although Nigeria has many problems to contend
with, but that of the education sector is a major one. The quest for higher
education in Nigeria, even though has increased almost exponentially in the
last quarter of the last century, however, this has brought about large scale
of graduate unemployment. Because of the obvious structural and dynamic
relationship between higher education and a country’s level of development, we
can safely conclude that a society’s system of education has a direct and
critical bearing on the types of job that can potentially be available for
graduate employment. However, the objective realities of the Nigerian
university system do suggest that the country may not be able to provide
employment for all her graduates, as the continuous decline in the performance of
our universities is quite obvious. It runs through absence of critical
teaching/research personnel, lack of facilities, lack of textbook, poorly
equipped libraries and laboratories. In this very depressing situation, therefore,
the process of teaching, research publication and knowledge development may
have no relevance to the challenges of the present global market.
INADEQUATE EDUCATIONAL CURRICULA AND
POOR EDUCATIONAL PLANNING
The
educational system as inherited from the colonial era was grammar-oriented
until recently, the school curricula emphasized the arts subjects. Again, the
educational system is theoretically oriented, for this reason, the system of
education does not equip school leavers with those practical skills required
for earning a living. Many of them see education as a means of freeing
themselves form working on the land. Many remain unemployed since they are not
suited to the available job opportunities. Many people do not attend school for
further study beyond the first degree level. This could be as a result of widespread
poverty and the low value placed on education by some people. There are
therefore, a high percentage of young people who are unemployed because there
are not enough available job opportunities and they don’t possess the required
skills.
IMMOBILITY
OF LABOUR
Occupational
and geographical immobility of labour compounds the problem of unemployment.
Immobility of labour arises from factors such as tribalism and state area due
to a low wage structure that a lack of economic, social infrastructure and
trade union regulations. The result is that, there is a scarcity of labour in
some areas and serious unemployment in other areas. Youth restiveness in the
Nigeria Delta is an example of the bad implication of graduate unemployment in
Nigeria. Self-employment should be encouraged nation wide as this in turn
crates job for other people.