The Acting Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, NUC, Chris Maiyaki says the Commission is working assiduously with key stakeholders to change the narrative on the dissonance between skills and employment potentials of graduates from Nigerian universities.
He said one of the primary objectives of the recently launched Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) by the Commission, when implemented, would address the skill gaps and make Nigerian graduates employable and employers of labour.
He said the new CCMAS is premised on the understanding that the university system is the bedrock of the intellectual and socio-economic progress of any nation.
He spoke in Abuja at the 2023 International Summer School and Conference of the African Centre for Career Enhancement and Skills Support (ACCESS) added that NUC is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that universities are equipped with the necessary tools, facilities, and skills to nurture employable graduates.
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Stakeholders at the event expressed worry about reports that about 40 percent of Nigeria’s youth population are unemployed, and this is the cause of numerous social vices such as kidnapping, drug trafficking, armed robbery, cultism, and terror threats, to mention a few
The acting NUC executive secretary said the Commission has also made entrepreneurship study compulsory for students in all universities in Nigeria, in addition to curriculum re-engineering and collaboration with industry to enhance the employability of Nigerian graduates.
While speaking further at the conference, themed Cultivating New Frontiers in Employability Research for Skills and Career Enhancement, Maiyaki said graduates must be fully equipped to face the challenges of a dynamic and interconnected world, constantly advancing in technology.
He said the improvement and update of educational programmes constituted a continuum that must align with the realities of global best practices.
Maiyaki also pledged that the conference would harness some of the topical issues, best practices, and emerging trends worldwide while formulating implementation machinery with concrete implementable actions to drive graduates’ employability.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew David Adejo called on tertiary institutions as well as captains of industry to devise a means and strategy to train Nigerian graduates that would be fit for the labour market.
Adejo noted that with the increasing number of tertiary institutions, especially universities, graduates coming out from these institutions cannot find jobs because of the problem of employability.
He said that the missing link between academia and industries must be addressed so that graduates would possess skills that would make them employable.
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