With the high rate of joblessness amongst school graduates, an educationist in Rivers state has urged tertiary institutions to equip their undergraduate students with more of creative skills while in school.
Director for Entrepreneurial studies of the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Professor Sam Otamiri stated this in an interview with our reporter Tina Amanda.
According to him, Ignatius Ajuru University took up the challenge to educate its students on creative skills in order to bridge the gap of unemployment, stressing that government alone cannot create jobs for the millions of people graduating each year.
‘’people graduate but they have no creativity, they have nothing and they are armed with degrees that make little or no meaning to their functional life, they end up not being employable, the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education wants to produce a different crop of graduates in Nigeria.
“We want to produce graduates that can sustain themselves, take care of themselves even if they have no paid employment they can carter for themselves. When they graduate they will be given the regular degree certificate they entered for and also a certificate confirming that they are qualified skilled holders in a chosen area, that’s what we are doing”
Professor Sam pointed out the essence of the undergraduate training in various skills of their choice to address issues such as insecurity, joblessness by making them generate income and employer of labour.
“From the centre of entrepreneurship studies, we are making worthwhile efforts to fight unemployment and unemployability in our St John campus Portharcourt. There are various skills we are teaching people that we believe will solve some of the problems in Rivers state like, scaffolding, drilling, auckwelding, pipeline welding, filmmaking, dressmaking, acting, household cosmetic making, fashion, occasion management and so many other skills they can use to survive should there be no white collar job”
