Every year, thousands of young people stream out of Nigeria’s institutions of higher learning, and into a world that not a few of them have dreamt of conquering. They bear with them certificates issued to them by their alma mater, pieces of paper that are supposed to attest to their being worthy to take up socio-economic positions of responsibility. People beyond the walls of ivory towers- especially employers of labor -are supposed to take special note of these documents.
But many who have emerged from our Universities and polytechnics lament that their slips aren’t even being glanced at by employers, let alone closely considered. They are disappointed that the certificates seem to function more like just another fancy addition to their files, and less like tickets to a better life. The ‘labor market’ is a crowded arena, defined by struggles that remind them of the bleak picture painted by Darwin of man’s quest to stay alive.
The survival of the fittest becomes more than just a part of a University’s General Science course that students conveniently glossed over. It takes on new meaning, in the battle to secure perennially limited slots at hiring companies. Hundreds hunt a dozen advertised vacancies, and in the end, there’s an inevitable outcome: an army of unemployed graduates languishing outside the gates of the temples of economic safety that are medium and large-scale employers of labor. Many eventually abandon job hunting and strike out on the entrepreneurial path. But their place at the gates of the big companies is quickly filled by others, freshly graduated, hopeful and determined, sliding on a conveyor belt leading to likely disappointment.
But employers seem to be more interested in discussing a different problem: they can’t find graduates with the right skill sets to fill in positions in their companies. They blame the country’s education system, which they describe as outdated, inefficient and severely broken, for relentlessly flooding the labor market with hordes of
unemployable graduates. Some even claim that the skills gap is a big part of the unemployment problem because companies aren’t willing to imperil their productivity by hiring people who can’t fit into vacant positions. They also point out that it’s not just a hindrance for graduates who can’t find the jobs they want; businesses without capable hands to run things can’t grow at the pace they’re supposed to.
Companies have resorted to training new recruits, polishing them up so they can handle the work they’re assigned. Although this increases their running costs, they say they have no choice. There’s also the option of admitting promising talents into in-house internship programs, and snapping up the best performing interns at the end of these programs.
Perhaps these approaches are able to refine talents that higher institutions haven’t done a good job of developing. But what about the universities and polytechnics? They’re still sending off thousands of largely skill-deficient graduates annually. If employers are right about the dearth of creative problem solvers in the large pool of labor they’re scouring, then educational institutions in Nigeria are failing in a core duty. They have become economic black holes, gulping billions of naira annually (from students, government, and other ventures), and yielding a barely skilled labor force in return, plus not much else.
Beyond entry-level staff trainings and internships, there’s probably room for a more direct attack on the skill deficiency problem. One model that commentators have frequently pointed to is Germany’s apprenticeship system. This vocational training program, which is adopted by about 60 percent of young Germans, is a neat cross between traditional classroom learning and on-site practicals. Companies pay apprentices to work while in school; the students get a skills diploma, and upon completion of their program they are offered a job- if they make the cut. This differs from the undergraduate internship system as it’s presently run in Nigeria, in one crucial way: there’s no dichotomy between “classroom learning semesters” and “internship semesters.” In the German system, they run together, integrated into a three-year program that makes students perfectly aware of what their future profession requires of them, and guarantees that they have years of invaluable experience on the job before they even start.
The success of the German apprenticeship model is borne out by Germany’s exceptionally low youth unemployment rate, which stands at about 7 percent (it also has the second lowest general unemployment rate in the EU, with only 3.6 percent of the labor force unemployed). Compare this with the Nigerian situation, in which 25 percent of people aged between 15 and 24 (roughly corresponding to the population of people graduated from secondary schools and tertiary institutions), don’t have a job. While there are other factors at play here, it’s clear that the Germans are getting some things right that we’re not. The participation of businesses in Germany’s education system is certainly one of them.
Nigerian businesses could also explore partnerships with higher institutions, in which both parties collaborate to design and implement curriculum, learning plans, and on-the-job trainings. This system is currently being used in several community colleges in the United States. There’s something in this model for both educational institutions and companies: the former gets practical (and sometimes financial) support and sees the employability of its graduates improve (which in turn attracts more would-be students to it), and the latter has a more suitable pool of talents to select from.
Possible objections to the models referred to here will include the claim that university administrations tend to be resistant to change, and that businesses may be too intrusive. But these misgivings could be dealt with if both parties focus on the benefits that they will derive from partnerships like this, and clearly define their roles in the collaborative project. It’s also true that only a fraction of businesses in Nigeria can afford to enter into such partnerships, but the point isn’t about getting every single company in the country on board. Businesses that are able to handle it should do so if they believe that it’ll give them what they need. The improved educational standards that this brings about will also positively affect even the smaller businesses’ chances of hiring better-skilled employees.
In the end, it’s up to businesses to decide whether or not to give up recruitment policies driven by short-term thinking, for a more sustainable approach to building labor capacity. Whatever they decide, they’ll still be paying the fees of tertiary institutions, either in the form of increasingly unbearable Government taxes or via more direct interventions that’ll help them grow faster and achieve better bottom lines.
