Young people in schools today will be joining the work force tomorrow. The question therefore is whether Nigerian schools are preparing students for the workplace or just preparing them to memorize and regurgitate during examinations. Nigerian students need to move away from rote learning and memorization to understanding what is being taught with the objective of using it creatively to solve problems and come up with creative solutions and products in the 21st century work place. Schools should teach technical, innovation, creative and generic skills needed in the 21st century workplace. Some of the remarkable innovations coming out of America through Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Marc Zuckerberg have not come through regurgitation of what is memorized but taking what they have been taught in class to create what does not exist through innovation, we are looking for the Steve Jobs and Marcs Zuckerbergs of Nigeria but we need to create the conducive environment that will make it happen . President Obama during his remarks to the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce commented as follows
“I’m calling on our nation……to develop standards and assessments that don’t simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking and entrepreneurship and creativity”
“We are living in a world where what
you earn is a function of what you can learn” Bill Clinton Former America President
This famous quote by Bill Clinton summaries in a nut shell what the
participants at NESG Technical & Vocational Education Design Work shop agreed
at the recently concluded NESG Summit.
It was obvious to all
participants at the summit that if Nigeria is
to realize its vision of becoming one of
the twenty largest economies in the world by 2020 , it will need to transform
its youthful population into highly skilled and competent citizens capable of competing
globally. Furthermore a major part of
the responsibility for preparing such a workforce rests on its education sector’s
ability in all six spheres to provide
education that will guarantee employment
to the teeming population of youth .
As the
job market and economy changes, experts on education and the economy are
increasingly worried by the growing gap they see between the skills Nigerian graduates
have and the skills, knowledge and habits that employers are seeking. Over 60%
of graduates are unemployable as they don’t have the required knowledge or
foundation to hold down a job. Employers are asking that employees have updated vocational, technological,
innovative, creative skills,
Communication and literacy, presentation skills, entrepreneurial analytical,
problem solving ICT skills ,Interpersonal skills and ability to learn,
Commercial and Business Environment awareness . In a recently conducted
educational and employability survey done by Phillips Consulting it was reported that the most sought after
skills by employers was computer skills, subject/discipline knowledge, 76%-98%
ranked these skills as very important , other skills that employers wanted were
listed as teamwork and interpersonal skills, effective verbal communication,
ability to think critically and analytically as very important kills needed in
the workplace .
Furthermore
the Global economy has changed from an
industrialized economy to a Knowledge economy resulting in demand for a
different skill set. A knowledge economy requires
Nigeria’s educational institutions to
develop workers –knowledge workers and knowledge technologists - who are
flexible and analytical and who can be the driving force for innovation and
growth. Unfortunately our Educational Institutions
are not producing the type and quality
of skilled workers that employers want, that can support our economy in the
21st century due to the massive disconnect between the needs of the private sector and the curriculum delivered by
educational institutions, our
educational institutions continue to
deliver curriculum that is irrelevant to the 21st century
workplace thereby rendering thousands of
students unemployable. In addition to this , less than
1% of secondary education is oriented towards technical and vocational skills in our schools . Women’s participation
in scientific and technical occupations is as low as 10%, over 60% of fresh
Nigerian graduates are classified as
unskilled and this is in spite of the
serious shortage of skilled workers and technicians in oil, construction
, Industrial and services sectors. In the oil sector Indigenous Nigerian
companies are unable to meet up with the
60% local content stipulated by government in oil sector as drilling off shore skills needed is
absent in Nigeria.
Honourable Minister
Finance and coordinating minister of economy Mrs Ngozi Okonjo Iweala had
commented in an interview that the pace of growth is good but the quality of
growth matters , manufacturers need to create 2 million jobs in 2014
The fact is there are jobs in Nigeria
in critical growth areas that need technical and vocational skills but our
students are not trained in the skills needed in these sectors. Lack of
adequate attention paid to technical and vocational education in our
educational institutions has resulted in
rising youth unemployment poverty in Nigeria. A
case in point was reported in an interview with
Alhaji Aliko Dangote when he said that a total of 8000 technicians were
needed in the $9 billion refinery and petrochemical investment of which he will
be recruiting 300 every year . Recently his firm interviewed 550 secondary
school leavers out if which 200 was short listed and only 50 eventually
engaged. He said one of the major challenges to industrial development is not
really funding, but rather the absence of highly trained and experienced human
resources to drive growth . General Electric has also made an investment
commitment of $1 billion in Calabar for planned manufacturing and assembly
plant expected to create 2,300 jobs . The Company intends to set up a training
institute on site to build employee capacity and capability .
MCKINsey in a survey of
over 2,800 employers all over the world revealed that 4 out of 10 employers
cannot find employees to fill entry level positions in their firms and this had
limited their businesses . Most analysts believe that the major issue in the 21st
century labour market is the skills gap challenge, with the unemployment problem soaring every day.One way of closing
the skills gap is certainly creating an educational system that provides skills
required by employers, in a country like Nigeria where youth unemployment is
estimated to be above 50% , the challenge of closing the skills gap is urgent
and must be done immediately to arrest the soaring unemployment and crime
rate. To close the skills gap ,
education institutions and employers must come together and collaborate to
ensure skills requirements are communicated to the educational institutions and
the institutions should equip their graduates with required skills.
Such a collaboration was made possible at the recently conclude NESG
summit on education where experts were
pooled from Government agencies , private sector and educational institutions
.The task to
resolve some of these issues was given to the participants of the NESG Design workshop Group on Technical and
Vocational education and they set the following as objectives in the review of TVET in Nigeria
·
To
proffer solutions to ensure the development of Nigeria’s workforce in order
to advance Nigeria’s economic growth and
global competitiveness through the provision of accessible and relevant high
quality technical and vocational education
·
To
deliberate on how the current TVE System can be transformed and adapted to meet
the dynamic challenges of the workplace and the 21st Century
·
Make
recommendations as to Government Policies needed to ensure the success of the
system.
Some of the key
questions that were asked in order to proffer solutions were as follows;
1.
What are the
key challenges involved in developing Nigeria's workforce that will fulfil the
needs of businesses, organisations, industry sectors in Nigeria?
2.
How can we
start to build practical solutions that result in truly effective education for
employment?
3.
What
Interventions and Reforms must be put in place to address some of these issues
At the close of the workshop, it was
the general consensus that Nigerian institutions
must prepare future ready students, they must be responsive by providing them
with education that is relevant for employment in the private sector. Private
Sector must also play its part in ensuring it collaborates with tertiary
institutions and other education institutions to review the curriculum and
ensure it is relevant to its present needs. Employers will also work with
institutions to provide internships, apprenticeship and job shadowing so that
the practical skills are learnt by students before they graduate.
A committee was immediately set up
made up of Industry experts, NBTE the supervising Government Parastataals,
schools, state government TVET board members, technical colleges, tertiary
institutions and consultants to ensure
the conversation continues and to drive post summit initiatives which will see
to the implementation of the many recommendations proffered at the NESG summit.
There is an urgent need for these parties to
collaborate with the objective of
producing industry responsive entrepreneurial and student centered
education that will ensure that Nigerian students are not only university ready
but also career and workplace ready.
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