Nigeria needs new model of vocational education to stem youth unemployment

Incidences of Nigerian youths risking their lives to illegally cross the Sahara Desert or the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe have been blamed on shrinking opportunities for them in the country as population explodes.

Urgent attention must be paid to vocational education in order to develop employers of labour among the youthful population and stem the tendency of the educational system to produce mostly job seekers. This is an emergency because of the bulging population and rising youth unemployment rate.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, on Jan. 1 received 20,210 babies, according to a UNICEF report, trailing behind China (44,760) and India (69,070). Much of the current data suggests the population growth spurt is not slowing down anytime soon. A UN report last year projected that by 2050 Nigeria will become the world’s third-largest country by population and one of the six nations with a population of over 300 million. Sadly, educational and infrastructural development is not keeping pace and unemployment rate is increasing.

Nigeria’s struggle to create jobs is getting worse. Unemployment rate increased from 14.20 percent in Q4 2016 to 16.20 percent in Q2 2017, and 18.80 percent in Q3 2017, according to data from National Bureau Statistics (NBS). The number of people within the labour force who are unemployed or underemployed, respectively, increased from 13.60 million and 17.70 million in Q2 2017 to 15.90 million and 18.0 million in Q3 2017. Total unemployment and underemployment combined increased from 37.20 percent in the previous quarter to 40.0 percent in Q3 2017.

A large population is an asset. What Nigeria needs to worry about is the quality of its population, which boils down the level of investment in education, healthcare, and human capital development.

It is time for the public and private sectors to rethink vocational education. The Lagos State government has something similar in its Ready-Set-Work programme. However, this is designed for graduates of tertiary institutions and with little emphasis on entrepreneurship. Very few Nigerian youths get to this level of education. Something similar is, therefore, urgently needed for pupils in basic and secondary education stages.

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU

The writer can be reached via stephen.onyekwelu@ businessdayonline.com or 08137 433034.