INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS AND EMPLOYABILITY OF UNIVERSITY GRADUATES

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INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS AND EMPLOYABILITY OF UNIVERSITY GRADUATES

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

One of the most aching challenges confronting Nigeria today is the issue of unemployment. It has become so severe that policy-makers, parents and youths, especially graduates alike are having sleepless nights over it. The issue has been in the front burner of national discourse in recent years. The unemployment question is even aggravated by the increasing number of graduates being churned out annually by tertiary institutions made up of Universities, Polytechnics, monotechnics and Colleges of Education, about 322 in all excluding Technical Colleges (Educational and Employability Survey Report, 2014). Ajiboye, Oyebanji and Awoniyi (2013) defined unemployment as the share of the labour force that is without work but available and seeking employment. It could also be seen as an economic condition in which individuals seeking jobs remain unhired (Eurostat, 2013). The rate of unemployment in Nigeria has assumed and alarming dimension. It had steadily risen from 21% in 2010 to

23.9% in 2011, though the economy has been growing in an average of 7% per annum (National Bureau of Statistics, 2012).

More worrisome is the problem of graduate employability, which has rendered many Nigerian graduate unemployable. This is because, while it is one thing for tertiary institutions to produce graduates, it is another for the products of these schools to meet up with employers’ requirements, skills or competences for employment. Employers of labour often complain that some of these graduates though professionally or technically qualified are unemployable, in that they lack the requisite, essential skills or competencies needed in the job or for sustainable employment. These skills create a gap in their knowledge which must be filled to make them suitable to compete for few, existing vacancies that crop up from time to time (Sodipo, 2014).

Eurosat (2013) noted that employability is about having the capability to gain initial employment, maintain employment and obtain new employment if required. For the individual, employability depends upon: assets in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes; the way these assets are used and deployed; presentation of assets to potential employers and the context within which the individual works, e.g. labour market and personal circumstances. Knight and Yorke (2001) consider the concept of employability to be a ‘synergic combination of personal qualities, skills of various kinds and subject understanding.’ Employability skills denote characters that may make an individual attractive to potential employers (Babalola, 2011). These skills and competencies are directly linked to the needs of the labour market and the mandatory inclusion of employability skills in higher education has been proposed in some countries (Precision Consultancy, 2007). It has been proven that these employability skills promote performance in the workplace (Pan and Lee, 2011). Harvey (2001) define ‘employability skills’ in terms of four key areas: (a) Traditional intellectual skills – e.g. critical evaluation, logical argument (b) Key skills – communication, IT, etc., (c). Personal attributes – motivation, self-reliance and (d) Knowledge of organisations and how they work. Sodipo (2014) said these skills (soft) are usually lacking in graduates that are just out of school and even those already in employment. Organizations spend a lot of time and money training staff, not only in job – specific areas but also in general and basic skills.

This is therefore a key challenge to tertiary institutions in Nigeria, which produces over

300,000 graduates annually; a number that should ordinarily meet the country’s human capital resources needs (Oyesiku, 2010). But employers willing to pay well to attract skilled workers are increasingly, finding it difficult to fill job vacancies. Akanmu (2011) opines that products of the Nigerian University system have at different forum been challenged to test their suitability or otherwise to secure few available white collar jobs. He went further to say that the situation is not only sympathetic but embarrassing that the vast human material resources available to the country had not been trained and utilized to the advantage of the country

According to Pan and Lee (2011), the notion of employability challenges traditional concepts of higher education and raises the question of what the point of higher education is; subject knowledge and understanding, or learning how to learn. Some academics feel that this agenda is too driven by government policy and employers, rather than the academy. This can lead to unrest amongst academics, who are expected to teach employability skills and attributes in the classroom. De la Harpe, Radloff and Wyber (2000) suggest that there is concern worldwide that existing undergraduate programmes are not producing graduates with the kind of life-long learning skills and professional skills which they need in order to be successful in their careers.

The crux of the matter therefore is the effect of some academic factors on graduates’ employability in Nigeria, to cushion the cancerous trend of graduate unemployment in the country. The thrust of this paper thus is to examine these factors: academic discipline and academic performance of students in relation to their employability.

Statement of the problem

There may have been previous researches in this subject. This work gives further explanations and analysis in institutional factors and employability of university graduates

Objectives of the study
To understand the impact of institutional factors on employability of university graduates
To understand the relationship between institutional factors and employability of university graduates

Research questions
What is the impact of institutional factors on employability of university graduates?
What is the relationship between institutional factors and employability of university graduates?