HIGHER EDUCATION AND GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY IN NIGERIA: UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN GRADUATES’ PERCEPTION

Back to Page Authors: Ademola Ibukunolu Atanda

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Keywords: Employability, Employment, Graduate, Skills

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Abstract: The role of higher education in empowering recipients for gainful employment cannot be over-emphasized. Higher education is expected to supply high-manpower to nation’s economy. Though there are different institutions under the umbrella of institutions of higher learning, universities are peak of any higher education system. However, the rate of graduates unemployment in Nigeria is worrisome to stakeholders. This ugly trend is worrisome to the stakeholders. To what extent do universities inculcate appropriate employability skills required into the students in the course of their programme? Therefore, the article investigated extent at which university education impacts on students the requisite employability skills with the view to recommend beyond classroom measures in preparing graduates for gainful employment and self-reliance. A mixed method was used. The Masters students (5,936) of University of Ibadan for 2017/2018 session were used as population. A sample of 200 participants was made. Validated instruments were used for data collection while descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. The result revealed that 50% enrolled for masters because of unemployment. In addition, 24.3% had graduate for over 6 years with several job interview attempts without gainful employment before enrolling for masters. However, out of the thirteen skills expected of university graduates, commercial awareness and computing skills appeared low among the participants. The study recommended nexus between institutions of higher learning and labour market

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