Formal education they say is the greatest legacy you can give
to a child. Education is for the purpose of enlightenment. It is for the
purpose of liberating you from the shackles of ignorance and widening your
horizons about life. Education is the bedrock of success on which other values
are built upon. In Nigeria today, with the over 60% rate of unemployment,
education has been a chain causing the limitation of higher institution
graduates. This can be due to the high level of theoretical knowledge been
gathered in school which over 90% of students can't translate into
practicality.
Due to the limited chances of the labour market, employers
have been demanding for the 'extra' from job applicants or employees. In the
past, it used to be a case of companies putting employees through a trainee
programme for them to acquire some top skills needed to perform their duties in
the firm. Today a lot of things are changing. The culture of "On the Job
Training'' (OJT) is beginning to die gradually. Most companies go after
individuals with experience no matter where they acquired it and then
compensate them for it through adequate payment. They are not ready to waste
any resources training any worker that will leave in a twinkle of an eye at a
chance of a better offer by a bigger company. Several University graduates
finish school with brilliant results but ironically become unfit for the labour
market due to their inability to cope with the realities on ground.
During my ignorant days of searching for jobs, I used to hear
this question; what can you offer us? I took the question to be an insult. I
believe being a University graduate answers it all after all I went through
rigorous tests and trial period to acquire my certificates. I never had a
concrete answer to that question. I exhausted several attempts beating around
the bush which never worked well for me. It took me time to understand the
magnitude of the question. The company's major motive is to hear you align your
skills and ideas with the goals or aspirations of the company.
Some top companies only use your certificates as a template
for qualification for the interview phase. What you can offer will secure the
job for you. This happens mostly in Lagos. It is a game of you producing
results against all odds. A lot of youths gather academic qualifications with
no definite job experience or personal skills. I think this should be discouraged
except if you intend to tow the lecturing line. Masters degree holders always
wish to be executively employed one day with several B.sc holders under them in
no time despite their experience. This has prevented thousands of Nigerian
graduates from starting small. The picture of top bank executives have blinded
the thoughts of people or let me say they are fooled by the high life seen in
movies being lived by people of their class.
I belonged to this school of thought for a very long time. I
achieved nothing for years. Nigeria is a country where resources are so
strained that good chances hardly come. The best you can do is to be engaged
with SOMETHING. Develop with the industry your work is aligned with. Get
exposed and develop yourself. Opportunities in that line or a similar industry
will always come knocking. Every company today is looking for workers that will
hit the ground and immediately start running; not someone that will be
spoon-fed.
What am I saying in essence? Certificates have enslaved many.
They don't have the entrepreneurial skills to set up their own businesses, some
that possess those skills lack the required capital. These same people are not
ready for a job that doesn't suit their status. The available companies too are
not ready to risk employing an individual that doesn't have adequate experience
about office proceedings. Hence, the cause of stagnancy. You send your CVs to
several companies online and never get a single response from one. Even when
you do, you travel for the interview and make no progress. The best that comes
out of it is you being a philanthropist to the transporters out of the little
money you have. It is painful when you have to travel to a distant state to
attend the interview.
Formal education should liberate you and not limit you.
Formal educate is like a fishing equipment e.g. a fishing net or a hook and
line. The labour market is the water body e.g. river, stream, ocean, sea etc.
blessed with fishes. How you utilize the hunting tool in your possession will
determine the number of fishes you amass with time racing against you.
Here is my candid advice. I made some certain mistakes that I
wish I could turn back the hands of time to fix. As long as I can't fix it, I
have decided to champion a cause to correct individuals making the same
mistake. After school, either before or after NYSC or may be during a break or
a long strike like that of ASUU, simply get busy with something concrete. Make
sure it is something that could occupy space on your curriculum vitae. It could
be writing articles, blogging, learning photography, Photoshop or graphic
design, fashion designing, web designing, web development, software
development, content editing, cinematography, Microsoft word, PowerPoint,
Microsoft excel, Corel draw, cinematography etc. It doesn't matter if it is not
bringing in the instant cash. Some of these are basic skills that compensate
for poor certificates. These skills can make you more expensive to acquire than
a first class graduate. This is not paperwork. It is all about bringing results
which is a common slogan at the private sector. I used to work for an IT
company in Ibadan as an Online Editor; I met this young lady working as the
company's Secretary. She was writing her O 'levels examinations. She complained
about online editing being added to her work. I made her realize it’s an added
advantage and experience that could be beneficial to her in the nearest future.
In Lagos today, some Media companies pay as much as a N100, 000 and above for
online editing.
We shouldn't shun menial jobs too as undergraduates. This is
a business age where there are diverse companies seeking to carve a niche for
themselves in the economy of scarce resources. This has opened a world of
opportunities for sales representatives and marketers. Employers in this field
are only interested in a little experience as well as the intelligence on the
path of applicants. We should endeavour to hijack any opportunities to gather
experience any working experience no matter the duration and salary. It is a
futuristic sacrifice that will pay off at the long run. Some people amassed a
wealth of experience commonly working as office assistants during their undergraduate
days during breaks. This gives them a head-start advantage in life ahead of
their colleagues with better qualifications. We should never let our
certificates instill the culture of an empty and baseless pride in us. We
should be humble and embrace what comes our way pending on when better ones
will certainly come.
Siting back at home and relying on empty promises of top jobs
by relatives and family friends could be a prominent thief of time.
The Nigerian labour market has become so hard, hard people
succeed there by taking hard decisions.
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