EDUCATION FOR ENHANCING EMPLOYABILITY AND SELF-RELIANCE SKILLS OF PROSPECTIVE GRADUATES IN NIGERIA
Keywords:
Education, Employability, and Self-relianceAbstract
The rapid changes in the economy of Nigeria have brought the importance of human resource development into sharp focus. The demand for relevant skills in the knowledge economy is on the increase. The public expectations from educational institutions, is to adequately prepare the students before graduation with the attributes and capabilities relevant to the labour market. However, research results and comments from the public domain reveal that most of our educational institutions have failed in their duty of turning out quality graduates, but rather graduating half-baked, ill-equipped graduates that cannot meet the expectations of the labour market. This has resulted to serious economic issues, one of which is unemployment. The problem of unemployment is as a result of the existence of skill-gap. There is a mismatch between the skills acquired by the graduates from our institutions of learning and those needed for performance in the contemporary workplace. Therefore, there is urgent need for our institutions of learning to combine formal education with work-based training.
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