Advances in technology rendering Nigerian graduates unemployable —Don

DESPITE some states in the federation prioritising education in their 2020 budget, a senior lecturer in the Department of Communication and Language Arts at the University of Ibadan, Dr Gbenga Elegbe has said that the current trend in the labour market across the country will keep rending Nigerian graduates unemployable.

Speaking to Nigerian Tribune, the communication scholar noted that the Nigerian labour market is increasingly being driven by technology which most of the Nigerian institutions are not in tandem with.

“With the current labour market, Nigerian graduates will not be employable. This is because our labour market is being dictated by foreign trends and subjected to incessant changes. For example, we were taught how to use Nokia 3310; but now, it is Android.

“Yet, the universities are still using Nokia 3310 methodology to train graduates for the current labour market saturated with Android and fast-paced technology, which is why the graduates keep failing,” he said.

Dr Elegbe further stated that the oil companies’ technology and the innovations that saturate Nigerian markets are not present in the universities.

He, therefore, called for a drastic change in teaching and grooming approaches, saying, the analog and theory-based methodology being employed at the Nigerian institutions would keep disqualifying the graduates for the realities in the labour market.

He, observed that the unemployable state of most Nigerian graduates was part of the reasons the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was pressurising the Federal Government to revitalise the university system through effective funding.

The don then called for a redesigning of the Nigerian education curriculum at all levels in a bid to make the graduates employable.

He said the National Universities Commission should also ensure that the redesigned scheme of work is made by the right people.

Dr Elegbe, who described the use of the Computer-based test (CBT) format for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) put in place by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) as a brilliant innovation, stressed the need for every undergraduate and postgraduate student across Nigerian institutions to be well-grounded in ICT and the use of android applications on smart phone as the world is in the era of fast-paced technology.

He stated that contrary to views in some quarters, “the country cannot have free education at all levels because sound education is daily becoming very expensive to secure.

“If the education system in the country is reprogrammed in line with the modern realities of global market, some graduates may still not be employable because many of them, while in school didn’t carry out certain assignments and tasks,” Elegbe said.