THAT unemployment is one of the biggest challenges facing the country is simply saying what is obvious. Every year, millions of school leavers and graduates join the already saturated labour market, thereby increasing the number of idle hands in the country.
With that said, several ways have been suggested towards tackling the problem of unemployment and Prince Abiodun Lufadeju’s partnership with the University of Ibadan is the latest efforts towards addressing this challenge.
Prince Lufadeju, through the support of the University of Ibadan, recently presented the book, ‘From School to Work: A Handbook on Employment and Entrepreneurship For Undergraduates and Graduates.’
Speaking during the presentation, the vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka, commended Prince Lufadeju for the partnership, which would definitely help reduce unemployment in the country by putting the youth on the path of entrepreneurship.
Professor Olayinka, who was represented by the deputy vice chancellor, Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnership, Professor Olanike Adeyemo, described the issue of unemployment as a big challenge “and it is the responsibility of everyone to work towards finding solutions to it.”
Professor Olayinka charged the younger generation, especially undergraduates, not to have the entitlement mentality, where they believe everything they need to make life worthwhile would be provided for them on a silver platter.
The vice chancellor said the University of Ibadan had been focusing on the employability of its graduates through different programmes with different corporate organisations, “and part of this is the partnership with Prince Lufadeju.”
While also speaking, the chairman on the occasion, Dr Yemi Farounbi, lamented the shrinking employment opportunities for today’s youths, saying education alone could no longer provide employment for anyone.
Dr Farounbi said the book would definitely help improve graduate employability, as it would prepare the reader for the world of work.
“Today, we blame the government for not creating more jobs; we blame everybody, but the youth should also work to make themselves employable.
“There is a high competition for jobs and it is only those who prepare themselves that will be employed.
“I, therefore, want to charge our youths, especially the undergraduates, to develop themselves, especially in the area of communication,” Dr Farounbi said.
While speaking on the idea for the project, Prince Lufadeju said the book was as a result of a 25-year research after he started lamenting about the high unemployment rate in the country.
The author said while he kept discussing and lamenting about the lack of jobs for youths and how he thought they could go about to create something, somebody suggested to him to put his ideas into writing.
“And that was how I began writing the book 25 years ago. In fact, I wrote the first draft in seven days.
“This project is, therefore, a call on everybody to change their notion about employment, as government alone cannot provide jobs for all our school leavers and graduates.
“However, the essence of education is to build the capacity of graduates and create something for themselves.
“Unfortunately, there is a missing link that we are not addressing as all government programmes are short-terms.”
“This project will, therefore, open the eyes of everybody, both the government, educational institutions and even students, to the steps to take towards addressing this challenge,” Prince Lufadeji said.