Opinion: Unemployment, What Nigerian Graduates Should Know

By Ifeoluwa S. Dada

There is a myth today in Nigeria about jobs, that: “there are no jobs out there, learn a skill, empower yourself and be self-employed, stop looking for a white-collar job.”

This is the kind of rhetoric that an average Nigerian youth daily has to endure from supposed counsellors. And you know, there is something about myth: when it had passed through a lot of processes, it carries the notion of truth which in fact is merely a façade.

Usually, a lot of young men go through the higher institution of learning with this same narration. It comes up at almost every lecture; the gospel is beaten into him consistently enough to wade off any job expectation after school.

In fact, he is made to go through entrepreneurial courses that should prepare him for “self-employment” and life after school. When he eventually finds a way through school and proceeds to serve his nation in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, which takes him through a three weeks orientation exercise, the “no jobs out there” narration pops up again.

Read Also: Pursue Entrepreneurship Rather Than White-Collar Jobs – Okowa Advise Youth

As a panacea, the scheme has a Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Department (SAED) which affords the Corp members opportunities to learn skills like Makeup and Cosmetology, Barbing, Catering, Shoe Making, Tailoring, amongst other.

SAED periods can be very interesting in camp, ask any Corp member around. Unfortunately, we should be doing better with our graduates as a nation and rather do more to equip them for efficiency in the formal sector.

The current unemployment crisis in the nation has created a survival mentality while we indirectly downplay the formal sector. In fact, underemployment is as great a crisis as unemployment.

One need not go for the other really, while we encourage young people to get empowered with skills that enhance them in their vocations of interest, there is need for deliberate emphasis on equipping them also with skills that would make them formalize these vocations as these will further deepen their roots in that space and give them an edge both at home and in the global market.

A recent report by Tatenda Gwaambuka available on africaexponent.com reveals that although Africa, in which Nigeria is a major variable boasts of the world’s highest entrepreneurs, the contribution to economic growth has been limited. One of the reasons for this as stated in The African Economic Outlook, 2017 is that “entrepreneurs driven by opportunity are more productive and innovative.

Unfortunately, 7 per cent of Africa’s working-age population is survival entrepreneurs who would contribute more to growth if they were in the formal labour market. These entrepreneurs are pushed into starting businesses because of unemployment or underemployment” Without downplaying the vocational skills mentioned above, a graduate, who for instance studied Mass Communication must have written courses that cut across Broadcast Media, Marketing and Advertising, Public Relations, Print Media and Publishing to mention a few.

There are skills that will equip him as a professional Mass Communicator and with the technology that has to liberate the media industry, he has a chance if he fancies it. He can get entrepreneurial with these professional skills that cut across Voice Acting, Podcast production, Creative writing, and publishing E-books if he wills he can translate the E-books into Audiobooks, he can also acquire Digital Marketing skills all within the communication cycle.

In the final analysis, a thriving business is one that addresses the needs of the public and there are needs cum demands for these professional skills. They are the skills his potential employers need to achieve their business goals. They need him and if he is unable to find them, he can as well sail on as a “professional entrepreneur”.

The ones who studied Accounting, Economics, Business Administration and financial related courses can gather skills in financial reporting; master the use of professional enhancing software like Microsoft Excel, SAGE and the likes, writing business proposals and strategies, almost all the courses he wrote in school could be translated into a service market.

For instance, Start-ups need basic account and bookkeeping templates to run a business successfully and they can’t afford KPMG and other top financial service firm but graduates can pitch their tent with Start-ups to provide some of these basic services. And what is more entrepreneurial than that? Or is that asking for too much from a graduate? The same goes for the sciences.

Skills abound in the digital space that is in trending demand. Coding, Software and App development, Web Designs, Graphics, Data, and research-related skills in gathering, analysing and interpreting data are increasingly becoming answers to needs.

I have a friend who studied Biochemistry who has gone entrepreneurial with the knowledge from his Biochemist background, he has pitched his tent with what everyone needs, he chose food, he discusses nutrition from a biochemist point of view.

Nutrition Biochemist he calls himself and has even gone as far publishing an E-book – “Let You Food Become Your Medicine” In summary, we need more young people to get into professional space and the formal sector at large to drive Nigeria’s economy.

But those who insist they are not cut out for “white-collar jobs” can keep flooding our WhatsApp status with bags and shoes, we will patronize them. After all, we all need barbers and tailors and “there is no greater freedom than being self-employed.”

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