Institute urges training to tackle human capital crisis

The Institute of Strategic Human Capital Managers has called on the three tiers of government to prioritise training and education as captured in the human development index (HDI) with a view to addressing the developmental issues confronting Nigeria.

President of the institute, Joseph Oyekunle, who gave the charge in a chat with The Guardian at the weekend in Lagos, regretted that human capital, as a concept, had been left unappreciated for too long.

He stressed that training was key to every business be it church, mosque, production etc, noting that such boosts human capital development which invariably counts for the success of all endeavours.

His words: “The whole essence of government is centred on human capital development and welfarism. Government must prioritise human capital development. There is a human capital index being given less attention. And it is training and education.”

Oyekunle, urging that graduates should be trained for relevance, advised that the right people should be put in their corresponding positions for result, noting that such was the bedrock of human capital.

He made a case for vision, synergy and continuity of policies and programmes that have direct bearing on job-creation and development, stating that a major problem holding back the country was a lack of this.

Oyekunle challenged the central government on a well cut-out vision which the states could buy into to tackle the unemployment crisis and other developmental challenges in their domains.

On the unemployable nature of graduates from the nation’s higher institutions, the expert traced the root cause to corruption. He contended that the standard of education had not dropped but the maintenance of the standard. He, however, suggested that the products be retrained to fit into areas of need.

The chief executive of the pioneer human capital training enjoined government to revive all capital-intensive sectors as a panacea to the unemployment in the country.