Records show that the number of Nigerian graduates, both employable and unemployable, being churned out of universities and other higher institutions every year, is rising at a geometric proportion, while less than ten per cent of them get jobs. Study equally indicates that about eighty-five per cent of them are not only skilled, but unemployable.
Over the years, the agriculture, manufacturing and information technology (IT) sectors have remained pivotal in the economies of developing and developed nations. They are a precursor to socio-economic development and national competitiveness. A report by McKinsey Global Institute reveals that young developing economies of South Asia and Africa, particularly Nigeria, will have the fastest growing labour force, increasing at about two point three per cent annually. These nations are expected to contribute about three hundred and sixty million of the net new workers in the global labour force in the next twenty years.
Despite this pool, key economic indicators show there are skills gap in the formal and informal sectors. Unaddressed, they will hinder a country’s quest for industrial development. Though Nigeria is making frantic efforts in ICT growth,  a recent Telecommunications Survey revealed that there is a critical shortage of the technical skills needed to support the fast pace of telecommunications growth, sweeping across the African continent. Kenya, in fact, is the real leader, thanks to a tripartite of government support, an immensely successful innovative product, and private initiative.
Underlying Nigeria’s skills gap is a grossly inadequate educational curriculum. Our courses are outdated and mainly theoretical. They need input from end users, such as entrepreneurs, to be relevant. Otherwise, Nigeria will keep importing skills, with its attendant cost. It is unfortunate that all that Nigeria knows and craves for is paper qualification, without the corresponding ability to perform. Thus, many cannot defend the certificates they possess.
Given the current disconnect in Nigeria’s labour skill inventory, time is ripe to reboot the nation’s educational system by various joint programs, particularly between the universities and employers. Such activities have the potential to play an important part in plugging the talent gap in the years to come. It is believed that retraining individuals for the jobs of the future and allowing them to visualize what is possible today will not only make a difference in their lives, but will enrich our communities now and in future.
Besides, it is believed that there is also the need to cater for the large segment of Nigerian youths who have not had the opportunity to go to university. Relevant technology skills will open a whole new world of development to populations that are difficult to employ, and provide support to underemployed, or dislocated workers.
The Federal Government, in partnership with the private sector and non-governmental organizations, should expedite action in establishing technical colleges and vocational training schools. This will help address the skills gap among artisans. A skilled and productive labour force remains the only means through which the country can develop. Paper qualification is good when it can be defended by the holder. It becomes a death certificate when the holder cannot defend it.
Moreover, as an alternative narrative to get-rich-quick or die-trying by riding okada or Keke, there is the need to change the public perception of technical colleges, as many Nigerians think such educational institutions are meant for dullards. There is the need to change people’s perception about certificates too, as people believe these days that one who does not acquire a university degree cannot make it in life, leading to the current mad rush to acquire the certificates anywhere, anyhow and by any means. This results in unemployable graduates roaming the streets, searching for the non-existing white-collar jobs, whereas some of them are actually endowed with brown-collar job skills.
Above all, Nigerian education curricula should be restructured to pave way for skill training in the system so that when our youths graduate, they will not only be self employed, but also employers of labour, thereby reducing the rate of unemployment in the country.
The National Youth Service Scheme should equally be restructured. Though the scheme has started equipping Corps members with technical skills in camp, but three weeks is not enough. Skill acquisition should be made compulsory and should go concurrently with their primary assignment and at the end of their service; government should give each corps member a parting grant of, say two hundred thousand naira. With this, some of them will not pass out, roaming the streets, but going to their workshops to employ others, thus reducing crime and unemployment.

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