Skills gap worsens graduate employability
Nigeria’s growing employability crisis has come under renewed scrutiny, with stakeholders warning that outdated curricula and weak industry alignment are leaving graduates ill-prepared for the modern workforce. At an industry
- By Anne Agbi
Nigeria’s growing employability crisis has come under renewed scrutiny, with stakeholders warning that outdated curricula and weak industry alignment are leaving graduates ill-prepared for the modern workforce.
At an industry roundtable themed “Bridging the Skill Gap Between Education and Industry Needs in Nigeria,” stakeholders said findings from a recent report revealed a persistent disconnect between job seekers and employers’ expectations. They agreed that urgent reforms are needed to align education with workplace realities.
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The Managing Director of Proten International, Deborah Yemi-Oladayo, noted that despite receiving between 30 and 40 job requests daily, many candidates are rejected for lacking the required competencies. She described the skills gap as multidimensional.
“We kept getting feedback from organisations that the candidates we presented were not qualified enough. This continued for a while, and we realised we needed data to validate what was happening, not just assumptions.
“About 60 per cent of lecturers we surveyed said their curriculum has not been reviewed in the past six years, which is a major concern in a fast-changing world.”
She stressed that beyond curriculum reform, lecturers must be retrained and equipped to deliver updated content, while calling for stronger collaboration between government, academia, and industry to drive meaningful change.
“If you redesign the curriculum, you must also retrain the lecturers. You cannot expect them to give what they do not have,” she said.
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Corroborating this, former Rector of Lagos State Polytechnic, Oluremi Olaleye, faulted the private sector for demanding job-ready graduates without engaging regulators.
“They want ready-made graduates, yet they are not coming forward to say what exactly is missing. If they identify skill gaps, they should approach the regulatory bodies and have those competencies embedded into the curriculum,” he said, maintaining that Nigerian university curricula largely meet global standards.
Also speaking, Founder of Treford Africa, Harry Enaholo, said the rapid pace of technological change has worsened the mismatch between education and employment.
He noted that fresh graduates often compete with candidates who already have years of experience.
“It’s not entirely the graduates’ fault. The world is evolving too fast. Many people graduate into a job market that no longer matches what they studied.
“The time to start learning these skills is as early as possible, even before graduation,” he added.
