‘Strategic internship scheme to curb youth unemployment’

With recent statistics showing the population of students in tertiary institutions across the country on the increase, there is however no corresponding surge in the creation of economically viable opportunities, a situation which is triggering an alarming rise in Nigeria’s unemployment and crime rates

Industry watchers are indeed worried at the situation where graduates hardly secure paid employment, stressing that the frequency at which the nation’s universities churn out half-baked students to add to the worrying statistics paints a bleak picture for the future of education in the country.

It is in realisation of this challenge that analysts have called for a strategic development of human capital through internship scheme and partnership with private sector organisations to ensure that graduates across the country are equipped with the needed skills that will make them employable.

They maintained that the importance such innovative drive such as the graduate internship scheme is to bring the desired connection between theory and practice in the approach to teaching and learning for current graduates which will stand them in good stead in the ever competitive world of employment.

Sola Fajana, vice chancellor, Joseph Ayo Babalola University (JABU), Osun State, declared that no country can actually attain development goal if there is not investment in building the capacity of her human resources.

Fajana observes that internship scheme should be designed in such a way to ensure that graduates are prepared into working environment adding that organisation today wants to employ anybody particularly the young graduates without the required basic skills in working environment.

On his part, Peter Okebukola, a university don noted no employers would want to employ anybody who does not have some basic requirement for employment adding that public private sectors are key drivers of the Nigeria economy and are future employers of the graduates.

According to him, “It is appropriate that graduates attend internship scheme to get prepared so that the skills and knowledge they acquire out of the training will help them to continue appropriately in those firms and organisation and therefore build themselves up to ensure that they prove that there is something in them as graduates.

Peter Papka, director, Community Service, Women and Youth employment reveals that is the graduate internship scheme which serves as a social safety net or social protection scheme is to ensure that graduates are not subjected to the challenges of unemployment,

He further noted that the scheme will impact on the national economy because with these graduates are going to be industry ready meaning that employers are going to find out that they need to spend less to get new graduates off the ground running. Because they will be ready to add value from the first day they get into the job.

Papka further pointed out the internship scheme is one of the many interventions by the federal government in trying to reintegrate Nigeria graduates into the real world. To give them an idea of what it is like to work after graduating from school.

“At the end of the day, Nigeria will benefit by having real human capital development out of the university as oppose to graduate that come out without any functional knowledge,” he said.

KELECHI EWUZIE