FG moves to tackle graduate unemployment, skills gap

THE Federal Government has said it is alarmed by the growing youth unemployment which is aggravated by serious disconnect between university training and the needs of the labour market in Nigeria.
Accordingly, the government through the National Universities Commission (NUC), has kick-started the process of conducting industrial skills gap assessment and Pilot Tracer Study of graduates from Nigerian universities.
Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, who declared open on Thursday, in Abuja, a  workshop on Pilot Tracer Study of selected graduates from Nigerian universities, said this becomes imperative in view of the fact that the issues of job creation and the need for highly skilled workforce, were critical to the economic development of the nation.
Adamu, lamented that in spite of the huge number  of graduates that are churned out from the nation’s university system on an annual basis, some industrialists and employers of labour prefer to source their workforce internationally to the detriment of Nigerian graduates.
He said: “In year 2000, a World Bank study revealed a serious disconnect between university training and the needs of the labour market in Nigeria. This mismatch has been and continues to be socially costly to Nigeria.
“Dangote group, for instance, prefers to source its workforce internationally to the detriment of Nigerian graduates. It is therefore, pertinent that Nigerian universities need to produce the skilled workforce that matches the needs of the market both in terms of quality and quantity,” he said.
While expressing concerns about disturbing rate of graduate unemployment in Nigeria, the minister, however, said youth unemployment was a global challenge, disclosing that in January 2015, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, it was observed that global youth unemployment was growing at an unprecedented rate.
He said it was further observed that the growing rate of youths unemployment was as high as 50 per cent.
He noted that the collaboration between NUC and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation  (UNIDO), was to conduct a pilot Tracer Study of graduates of Science and Engineering programmes from selected universities.
Adamu, explained that survey would provide information required to evaluate the employability of graduates of Science and Engineering programmes.
Tracer Studies are also used to provide data to students, parents, career guidance professionals and policy-makers as to which programmes are likely to lead to employment, while universities and planners would use the information to help them plan and improve on their curriculum and programmes