“Why Nigerian Graduates Are Not Employable” – Prof. Julius Okojie – National Universities Commission has blamed Nigerian Universities for producing graduates that are not suitable for available jobs.
NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Julius Okojie, said the quality and focus of the training offered by the universities were not in tune with the needs of the society and hadled to high unemployment.
Presenting the report of the Labour Market Observatory Project on Thursday in Abuja, Okojie said, ‘many of the graduates are perceived to lack the skills needed by employers of labour.’
“If education and training institutions do not address marketplace skills, market inefficiency may be compounded as indiciduals invest rime and money in skills that do not provide necessary or relevant training. On the demand side, employer’s needs may go unmet, creating inefficiencies and unnecessary costs in the provision of products and services.”
The NUC boss said enabling environments must be created to give graduates the option of starting their own business instead of relying on government.
He added that critical and analytical thinking would also give graduates the option of switching careers when they want to.
“We are not expecting that every graduate would be employed by government. In most developed countries, only about two percent go to work for the government. When we provide the enabling environment, it creates the ability to think and create jobs for yourself to meet your needs through legal means,” Okojie said.
He explained that efforts were on to ensure the restructuring of the university curricula to boost entrepreneurial skills of willing graduates, show them how to access funds, how to manage businesses and balance their books.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the appointment of Prof. Adewale Solarin as the Director General of National Mathematical Centre, Abuja for a single term of five years.
Solarin became Professor of Mathematics in 1997 and has trained and mentored many academics all over the world in the Mathematical sciences from first degree to PhD levels.
He had been acting DG of the NMC since June 2012 when he took over from Prof. Sam Ale.
Posted by Hope for Nigeria
