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RELEVANCE OF
NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE CORPS SKILL ACQUISITION PROGRAMME AND UNEMPLOYMENT
REDUCTION
ABSTRACT
This study
investigated relevance of national youth service corps skill acquisition
programme and unemployment reduction in Ifako Ijaiye Local Government Area of
Lagos State. The study adopted descriptive survey design. A self-designed
validated questionnaire was used for data collection. Three research questions
and three hypotheses guided the study. Eighty graduates randomly selected under
the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme in Ifako Ijaiye Local Government
Area of Lagos State participated in the study. The statistical tool used in the
study was the Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and all
hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Findings showed that
there was a significant relationship between skill acquisition training and
reduction of unemployment, there was a significant relationship between skill
being thought and the needs of various organisations and there was a
significant relationship between government funding and the achievement of the
set objectives of the scheme. Based on these findings, some recommendations
made in this study include: the government should ensure that there is proper
implementation of the skill acquisition programme. The study found out that the
major problem with skill acquisition training is policy implementation and not
formulation. Also, The government should make a policy integrating
entrepreneurship skill acquisition to enhance self-employment, in the curricula
from secondary to tertiary levels to
give students an opportunity to combine and coordinate all the elements
of business management and to also inculcate in them entrepreneurial mind-set
as well as motivate the students to setup their business ventures on
graduation. The study also recommended that government should have the
political will to work hand in hand with the universities by providing good
infrastructure, resources and adequate funding because these facilities have a
way of improving the skill and knowledge of the graduates.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
to the Study
Unemployment
is a major treat that is facing graduates of tertiary institutions in Nigeria
due to the economic downturn and recessions experienced in countries around the
world. In Nigeria, the reported youth unemployment rate has grown from
41percent in 2009 to over 50 percent in 2012-2013 and is growing at a rate of
16 percent per annum (Salami, 2013). Though data sources vary greatly depending
on the technically out of work population, Nigeria’s large population size is a
significant multiplier and results in between 5 to 20 million unemployed youths
in Nigeria today.
Unemployment
in Nigeria, as in other developing countries of the world, has been one of the
most menacing social and economic problems Nigeria has to contend with. It is
absolutely impossible to find a family in Nigeria which nobody is either
unemployed or threatened by unemployment. The effect of unemployment on social
and political stability cannot be wished away. Unemployment is partly
responsible for social problems such as armed robbery, prostitution,
destitution, kidnapping for ransom, bunkering and other social vices. Lemo
(2013) asserts that entrepreneurship remains the viable option to create jobs,
reduce unemployment, poverty and empower youths to develop their businesses,
pursue their dreams and contribute to overall productive capacity and national
economic growth and development.
Graduates of
tertiary institutions in Nigeria after their compulsory National Youth Service
cannot boast that they will be employed after their service year. Only a few of
them could be lucky to secure paid employment. Therefore, being a graduate of
higher institution of learning or possessing professional qualifications in
disciplines such as law, medicine, accounting, engineering and so on is no
guarantee of getting the desired employment due to the economic problem the
country is facing.
Skill
acquisition in terms of entrepreneurship education have been suggested to
enable the country tackle the endemic problem of unemployment and poverty among
the teeming youths and graduates in Nigeria so as to enable them to be job
creators as well as wealth creators (Midea, 2004, Izedonmi, 2009, Unachukwu,
2009).Entrepreneurship skills acquisition can be obtained through various
avenues such as: attending entrepreneurial training classes, development
programmes, seminars, workshops and so on.
Entrepreneurship
development in Nigeria has been ongoing for many years. Several government
agencies and institutions have been engaged in different aspects of
entrepreneurship development though with varied successes. Entrepreneurship
Development Center (EDC), Center of Management Development (CMD), National
Directorate of Employment (NDE), former Nigeria Industrial Development Bank
(NIDB), Nigerian Bank for Commerce and Industry (NBCI), Nigerian University
Commission (NUC), National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy
(NEEDS), National Open Apprenticeship Scheme (NOAS), Small and Medium
Enterprise Development Association of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Small and Medium
Enterprises Equity Investment Scheme (SMEEIS) and national Youth Service Corps
(NYSC) among others have programmes for skills acquisition and entrepreneurship
development in Nigeria.
Nigerian
government and policy makers are increasingly finding it difficult to deal
successfully with graduate unemployment. The high rate of unemployment can be
blamed on the lack of adequate provision for job creation in the development
plans, the ever expanding educational growth and the desperate desire on the
part of youths to acquire University education irrespective of course and
course contents. As a result, a number of skills acquired from the University
appear useless and irrelevant. With each passing academic year, more and more
graduates are being turned out from the various Universities in the country.
The NYSC annually mobilizes an average of 250,000 graduates. However, 227,136
corps members served in 2012.
The National
Youth Service Corps Scheme and the institution that administers it has been a
veritable tool for the promotion of national unity since 1973 when the
programme was launched. The scheme has been reengineered and reloaded with the
aim of re-aligning its programmes and contents to enable it discharge its
duties and responsibilities efficiently. The scheme has redoubled its efforts
at implementing policies that are meant to allow corps members render selfless
service to the nation in a secured environment as well as prepare them for
future leadership positions and challenges of post service life. One of the
policies is Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development.
The
introduction of Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development training to
corps members is to ensure that they become job creators instead of job
seekers. It is expected that in the long run, the scheme will bring about
industrial revolution in the country. The Skill Acquisition and
Entrepreneurship Development drive of the scheme is two pronged namely: Skill
Acquisition and the other one, Entrepreneurship Development. The first
component has to do with equipping interested corps members with specific
technical/vocational skills in identified skill sets based on individual
interest while the later focuses more of developing the business/enterprise
capacities of corps members. Presently Corps members are being trained in
skills areas as Agro-allied, Food Preservation, Culture and Tourism,
Cosmetology, Information Communication Technology (ICT), Environment,
Beautification, Construction, Education, Power and Energy, Film and Photography
and Automobile.
In ensuring
that the schemes objective is achieved, the National Youth Service Corps is in
collaboration with a number of organisations at both national and international
levels. These organisations provide materials, technical and financial support
for the programme. The scheme has a signed memorandum of understanding with
Bank of Industry (BOI), International Labour Organisation (ILO) and so on. To
further the cause of the initiative, a total of 285,000 corps members have been
trained under the skill acquisition programme (The Source Magazine, 2016).
Small
Business Service (2005) asserts that the possession of entrepreneurial skills
to create new knowledge based social enterprises is vital to addressing the
social and environmental issues effectively. In the face of global meltdown,
entrepreneurship is a central pillar to economic growth and development,
employment generation and poverty alleviation (Unachukwu, 2009). Therefore,
Nigeria cannot afford to toy with the issue of entrepreneurship,
entrepreneurship skill acquisition and development.
Statement of
the Problem
This study
focused on the relevance of National Youth Service Corps skill acquisition
programme to the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria. In the olden days the
private and public organisations (employers) searched for potential employees
to engage. The employers would go around universities and polytechnics to
search for potential graduates for employment. As at that time there were fewer
universities and polytechnics and enrolment was very low compared to now.
Presently about 1.8 million youths graduate annually from Tertiary
Institutions. Major Industries in Nigeria have closed down from operations due
to power failure, government policies and other economic issues that could have
made them to expand their business or engage more employees to boost their
operations.
The problem
of lack of skill and experience is very vital as consideration to graduates
being engaged for any particular task or employment. Ekong (2008) posits that
institutions of higher learning in Nigeria have concentrated more on
theoretical and abstract instructional deliveries, focusing only on cognitive
development and consequently turning out non entrepreneurial skilled graduates
into the labour market. The non-linkage of the requirements
(administrative/technical/course content, etc.) between Universities and
organisations who are employers of labour could not influence the undergraduate
curriculum to enable the fresh graduate to be engaged by organisations.
The
Supervised Industrial Training Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) was to expose our
students to the labour market before graduation, but this has been compromised
by lack of planning, supervision and corruption. Employment in Nigeria is
affected by corruption both in the public and private sectors of the economy.
Whom you know and how much you can pay could determine your chances of being
employed.
The Nigerian
government has been in collaboration with private investors to encourage the
practice of Entrepreneurship Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development
but low progress has been made up to date. This is associated to the attitude,
low level of understanding and perceptions among the young undergraduates
towards entrepreneurship. This problem led to the introduction of
Entrepreneurship Skill Acquisition Programme under the National Youth Service
Corps for corps members to serve as a training period for them during their
service year.
Despite the
attempts by previous regimes to reduce unemployment, the condition of the
Nigerian graduate still leaves a lot to be desired. This study therefore, seeks
to investigate the relevance of the NYSC skill acquisition programme in
reducing unemployment rate in Nigeria.
Purpose of
Study
The purpose
of this study is to examine the extent to which the Entrepreneurship Skill
Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development training of the National Youth
Service Corps have helped to reduce unemployment in Nigeria. The study focuses
on:
1. Ascertaining the extent to which the
National Youth Service Corps skill acquisition programme have helped to reduce
unemployment;
2. To examine the relevance of skill
acquisition training to requirements expected for recruitment of undergraduates
into various organizations in need of their services; and
3. To ascertain government commitment to
funding the programme and the roles played by government through their agencies
for the training of graduates under National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.
Research
Questions
1. Has the National Youth Service Corps
Skill Acquisition programme been able to reduce the growing rate of
unemployment?
2. Are the skills being thought relevant to
the needs of the various organisations?
3. Is the programme adequately funded by
government to achieve its set objectives?
Research
Hypotheses
In order to
carry out this research project, some working hypotheses were developed. The
research hypotheses for this project are;
1. There is no significant relationship
between skill acquisition training and reduction of unemployment.
2. There is no significant relationship
between the skills being thought and the needs of various organisations.
3. There is no significant relationship
between government funding and the achievement of set objectives of the scheme.
Significance
of the Study
There has
been tremendous growth in graduate unemployment as well as the demand for
university education in Nigeria. This study provides the basis for which
graduates in search of employment or self-employment are able to face the
challenges of unemployment plaguing the country.
The study
also provides a comprehensive view of the achievement of National Youth Service
Corps Scheme as an instrument of job creation in the socio-economic development
of graduates and the overall national development of the country.
Theoretically,
it contributes significantly to the existing literature on the subject matter.
It also provides information on the effectiveness of the National Youth Service
Corps in the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria. Data were made available on
the number of graduates so far trained on Entrepreneurship Skill Acquisition
and their availability for employment in organisations.
The findings
of this study would make provision for research information on Entrepreneurship
Skill Acquisition programme of the government and its agencies which is at
present not enough in literature. That is, there is not enough research
information on the government contribution towards the effectiveness of the
National Youth Service Corps Entrepreneurship Skill Acquisition and
Entrepreneurship Development programme as well as its constraints.
The study
will benefit policy making by ensuring that effective and efficient policies
are proposed to government for the enhancement of and sustainability of the
skill acquisition programme for graduates during their service year to reduce
mass poverty and unemployment in the country.
The Corps
members will be professionally trained on various skills that are relevant for
their survival in the growing unpredictable economic environment. They would
have been trained in certain skills that will make them job creators thereby
avoiding poverty and unemployment. They too will become employers of our youths
for the various jobs created by them.
Lastly, the
study would make useful contributions to the general readers and researchers
who want to study on the same topic or any related topics on Entrepreneurship
Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development.
Scope of
Study
The main
focus of the study was to take a critical assessment of the National Youth
Service Corps in facilitating youth employment. The National Youth Service
Corps has different programmes for skill acquisition and other programmes for
job creation. The programmes are targeted at impacting skill and creating jobs
for both graduates and non-graduates. Some programmes are designed for both
groups. Therefore, the target of this study was limited to graduates only.
These include graduate students from Universities and Polytechnics currently
serving within Surulere Local Government Area of Lagos State.
Definition
of Terms
The
following terms in the study are defined as follows:-
Skill
acquisition: This is the training of a person on a particular task or function
thereby making him/her an expert in it.
Unemployed:
This refers to the numbers of economically active graduates who are without
work but are available for and seeking work, including people who have lost
jobs or voluntarily left work.
Unemployment:
This is when people are without jobs.
Unemployment
Rate: This is a measure of the level of unemployment and it’s calculated as a
percentage of dividing the number of unemployed individuals by all individuals
currently constituting the labour force.
Entrepreneurship:
This refers to the capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a
business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit and be
self-employed.
Entrepreneurship
skill development: These are the training given to the entrepreneur. It
includes personal characteristics, interpersonal skills, critical and creative
thinking skills and practical skills.
Poverty:
This is referred to as a condition in which a person or group of persons are
unable to satisfy their most basic and elementary requirements for human
survival in terms of good nutrition, clothing, shelter, health, education,
recreation, and others.
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