HR experts advocate new approach to varsity education
Human resource experts have insisted that there is the need to revisit the issue of a faulty education system that have failed to prepare university graduates with the right skills suited for today’s work environment. This calls is coming even as employers and organisations continue to grapple with the challenges in recruiting the right talents with its attendant socio-economic implication on the nation,
Arguing from an organisational perspective, experts in the world of work believe that organisations hire people to perform specific tasks that help them achieve their business goals.
They pointed out that in today’s ever competitive world of employment, it is routine by employers to recruit candidates that parade not just a certificates that bears first class or second class upper division, but seek candidates with the right working skills that can contribute to the development of their company.
Experts further disclosed that much more than anything employers today want their recruits to be competent technically in their chosen field. They also want them to come of school well equipped with complementary life skills such as problem solving, reflective and critical thinking, interpersonal and teaming skills, effective communication, organising skills and abilities to translate ideas to action.
However with the growing unemployment rate in the country and employment companies finding it difficult to get the right candidates as a result of poor quality of graduates from our tertiary institutions, CEOs and Human Resources are worried for the future of the workforce if this issue is not resolved soon.
Often employers of labour have complained about the lack of relevant skills by the so-called graduates from the country’s institution of higher learning while other institutions running post graduate programmes have introduced internal examinations to test the aptitude of the graduates before admission, human resource practitioners have said points to the doubt that exist about the quality of the degree certificates obtained from the tertiary institutions.
Taking a holistic view of the situation as it concern the short fall of employable graduates in the country today, Ayodele Jaiyesimi, head, Human Capital Development, First Bank Nigeria, says the situation has really assumed a worrying dimension.
According to her, “There is a dearth of skilled man power, employers hardly find graduates today who have the basic of the basis, most of the time we do a basic aptitude test to get people in and you find out that you can’t even get 10 percent of them that will pass appropriately. So, when we are talking of skills, it is a huge problem for us in the banking industry”.
With this widening skill lacuna between industry demands and quality of the nations graduates, the human resource practitioner is of the view that there is much work to be done, “I feel we need to be committed to working together to lift up standards in the country”
Citing the efforts of her organisation towards this fight, she revealed the First bank have a corporate university so that from the entry level, candidates employed undergo series of courses that will trained them to fit the standard of the company irrespective of what they might have studied in the university.
Abraham Laleye, CEO, Robins Begg Consulting Limited, while reacting to the issue pointed out that human capital development is be devilled with the neglect of the present and past governments concerning its promises to the citizens in the area of investment in education, which has remained largely undelivered on account of primitive expressions of greed by the political elite.
Laleye noted that the universities should work more closely with the industries, try to understand their needs have a forum where there could be an exchange of ideas as to the challenges the industries are facing and how they can develop a proper curriculum to address these challenges.
Apparently disenchanted with the poor quality of university graduates, revealed that a country like the USA has strategically provided for the needs that would become very predominant in the next 50 years for professionals and have made strategic moves to fill the gap wondering why Nigeria should not follow suit.
He says the problem of skill gap is increasingly becoming a multi-faceted one, noting that organisations are looking for certain skills to help their business improve.
The employment consultant further noted that if organisations are serious about getting the right talents; there are lots of processes they have to go through. “They need to understand that talents require skills to be able to ensure that it has perfected the art of doing what you want them to do”.
“When organisation tries to recruit people to function in a particular department, what I discover is that they focus a whole lot of attention on people qualification and experience which is quite important, but they need to understand that qualification and experience cannot substitute for attitude and talent”. He said
KELECHI EWUZIE