Not only are parents and teachers taking the issue seriously, they are also making suggestions on how best to achieve it.
She said: “Too many graduates are chasing the few available jobs in the labour market. So, it has become necessary that youths acquire skills that can make them become self-reliant. Vocational skills would enable students to establish different small-scale businesses that could eventually form clusters, able to help grow the economy; engage other young people and improve the people’s well-being.”
She noted that this would also make pupils that are good at arts and crafts or who like working with their hands to showcase their talents and begin to make money through them. She said: “The pupils are not equally gifted. While some are good in one domain of learning, others are good in other areas. But with skill acquisition taught in schools, pupils that are better in the psychomotor domain will be encouraged to come up with something more creative.
Chiamaka Uzondu, a teacher with De-Light Nursery And Primary School, Wilmer, Lagos, noted that pupils with skills can never be unemployed, and that even while in the university, they can be making money on the side.
Government must create enabling environment, provide necessary infrastructure for big employers, the industrial sectors to thrive. The dominance of the private sector to create employment must be encouraged.