By Kings Ndubuisi Onwe
There is no denying the fact that unemployment will remain one of the bane of developed and developing nations. It is because of this that many nations, including Nigeria, have enacted policies and programmes targeted at eradicating poverty, and defeating unemployment.
But the more our tertiary institutions churn out graduates, the more people that are released for the labour market to absorb. The more there are people of school-going age without access to basic education, the more we will continue to battle this cankerworm called unemployment. Unfortunately, considering the above scenarios, most of our graduates are half-baked and lacking in skills needed in the labour market. Additionally, people without access to quality education or lack of it, turn out as illiterates because they lack formal education, they couldn’t obtain better jobs in the civil service or private organizations. One of the factors responsible for this is the socio-economic level of the people. If people are living in abject poverty, providing for educational career will be difficult if not impossible. It is because of these situations that make vocational education and skill acquisition the escape route to combating unemployment as well as poverty.
Webster’s International Encyclopedia (1999) defines vocational education as a course of study that prepares learners for a range of occupations that do not require higher degree in areas such as Agriculture, Business, Trade and Industry, Home Economics, Fine and Applied Arts, and various technical fields. Also, the National Policy on Education (2004) sees Technical and Vocational Education as the study of technologies and related sciences, and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relating to occupations in various sectors of the economy and social life.
Though, the above is within the confine of formal education, the alternative to vocational education is skill acquisition. Therefore, those who couldn’t acquire vocational education can go for skill acquisition courses or programmes. While it is a truism that everybody cannot go to school, it is imperative for those who didn’t or couldn’t acquire formal education to go for skill acquisition. This is so that this devil called unemployment, together with its sister poverty, will be curbed to the barest minimum.
There is need to be equipped with one skill or the other. One can acquire skills in tailoring, photography, baking or confectionery making, welding, carpentry, ICT, paint production, and so many other areas. This will save many unemployed citizens most of whom are graduates, from relapsing into depression, committing suicide, or worse still delving into crimes. Situations abound concerning graduates, who after many years of graduating, couldn’t be absorbed into the civil service or get paid employment. Rather than stay idle or remain in penury, they should acquire one skill or the other and put them into use. This will make them to be self-reliant, and be an employer of labour in the long run.
Already, there are opportunities provided by the government at both federal and state levels, in acquiring loans for SMEs. Also, the government at one stage or the other, has given out incentives to those desiring to go into SMEs. Spirited individuals and the government have also supported Small Medium Enterprises.
Finally, the fight against unemployment will be hard to win if government at all levels don’t support Vocational and Technical Education, as well as the SMEs. Vocational Education and Skill Acquisition remain the best antidotes for lifting the nation out of poverty and unemployment quagmire. The nation will easily transit from ‘developing’ to ‘developed’, and become one of the world’s top economies when its socio-economic, technological, educational and what have you are put in the right pedestal.
• Onwe writes from Enugu