Being Unemployable...

What needs to be known about work that isn't taught in school?

It is said these days that 80% of Nigerian graduates are unemployable. Each time this demography is quoted, a whole lot of people scream bloody Mary as to HOW it is possible and if so, WHY? Why are we churning out more "unemployable" graduates from our tertiary institutions?

I mean, why should Tunde Lemo say something as nefarious as that to the dearest people of his country? Wouldn't that be the singular most heart-wrenching to be heard after 16 years of slaving for an education?

A lot of other questions might be asked, questions which truly are daunting and worthy of thought, but the only(?) question that will lead to a solution is this;

What is happening in our schools that isn't preparing attendees for work?

Its worthy to note at this point that the workplace of the nows differ remarkably from what they used to be. Effectively, the skills needed to 'do work' now are a lot different from what was needed some twenty, ten or even five years ago.

The Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Prof. Biyi Daramola, believes that Nigerian graduates are unemployable due to the lack of self discipline and commitment to vigorous academic pursuit  but I quite disagree with his stand on the matter. He seems to shelve, skilfully, the responsibility of preparing people for work from the institutions which should, and placing them directly on the ones who should be prepared.

A lot is being said already about how the schools one attend do not matter and how soon, a degree may not be needed to secure a good job, and we all need to respond appropriately to this trend which will soon drive our educational system off the world scene altogether.

Where do we go from here?

The new skills needed to work are the so-called higher order skills of the Bloom's Taxonomy and could be listed basically as the ability to EVALUATE, ANALYZE and CREATE.

These skills are not being taught in our institutions and to make one "employable", one must learn how to think higher than the competition to secure the scarce available spaces.

We need to learn to keep LEARNING!