Nigeria’s labour market presents a striking contradiction: companies cannot find the skilled workers they need, yet millions of young people are unable to secure decent jobs. The paradox has intensified calls for a fundamental rethink of workforce development, GLORIA NWAFOR reports.

For millions of young Nigerians, work search has become an endless cycle of applications and rejection. At the same time, employers across key sectors complain they cannot find workers with the right skills.

The disconnect is fuelling renewed advocacy for apprenticeships, technical training and workplace learning as practical solutions that can create opportunities for young people while strengthening business productivity. Exploring how these initiatives can be tailored to Nigeria’s unique context will help stakeholders understand their applicability and potential impact.

At the ‘Programme on Youth Employability and Skilling Initiatives in Nigeria and Beyond’, organised by the International Organisation of Employers (IOE), the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) and GAN Global, with funding support from the European Union (EU), the complaints became even louder.

The meeting, which brought together representatives from Nigeria, Kenya, Namibia, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, sought to move discussions beyond identifying the unemployment problem to designing practical national action plans that would strengthen apprenticeship systems, improve technical and vocational education, and deepen employer participation in skills development in their various countries.

While the urgency of the challenge is reflected in the numbers, Africa is home to about 532 million young people, with 60 per cent of its population below the age of 25, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Although 57 per cent of young Africans are already working, 96 per cent are employed in the informal economy, while 40 per cent live below the poverty line.

The data said that many enter the labour market before completing basic education, with 42 per cent lacking primary education and another 26 per cent having only primary education.

Globally, the picture is equally troubling, as statistics from the body show that 12.4 per cent of young people worldwide were unemployed in 2025, while about 261 million youths were classified as Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET). Yet, despite the huge numbers, 75 per cent of employers globally report difficulty filling vacancies because applicants lack the required skills.

Founder of Field of Skills and Dreams (FSD), Omowale Ogunrinde, challenged the prevailing narrative that Nigeria’s biggest challenge is unemployment. According to her, the country is grappling more with a talent development crisis than a shortage of jobs.

She argued that employers across sectors continue to struggle to recruit workers with the competencies they require. At the same time, millions of young Nigerians remain unemployed because the education system is producing graduates whose skills do not match labour market demands.

“Our challenge is not unemployment; it is talent development,” she stressed, urging the government and private sector to collaborate effectively, which can inspire confidence and a collective effort towards solutions.

Drawing from global evidence, Ogunrinde noted that institutions including the ILO, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) have consistently identified apprenticeships as among the most effective pathways from education into productive employment. Highlighting successful local or regional models can illustrate practical pathways and motivate stakeholders to adopt similar approaches.

She maintained that lifelong learning cannot be achieved within classrooms alone but through practical learning in workplaces and skills centres.

According to her, Nigeria’s youthful population remains its greatest strategic asset. Still, that demographic advantage can only translate into economic prosperity if young people acquire industry-relevant skills and have access to productive jobs.

She added that investing in talent development leads to improved recruitment outcomes, reduced employee turnover, stronger productivity and increased innovation. At the same time, continuous learning remains one of the greatest competitive advantages organisations can have.

On how employers must move from observers to trainers

Executive Director of GAN Global, Kathryn Rowan, insisted that employers have a critical role to play if Africa hopes to reverse the rise in youth unemployment.

She said the most sustainable solution lies in bringing employers closer to young people through structured apprenticeships and work-based learning.

“This is all about finding solutions for youth unemployment and ensuring that we have opportunities for young people. The best opportunity for them is essentially to have employers involved in skilling. The closer the relationship we have between employers and young people, the better they will be able to get the skills they need for the future and secure long-term employment,” she said.

According to Rowan, quality apprenticeship programmes benefit everyone, helping economies, young people and companies.

She explained that GAN Global promotes structured apprenticeships because they remain one of the most effective long-term pathways to employment.

Rowan described Nigeria as a strategic country for the initiative because of its large youth population and the urgency of addressing unemployment before it becomes an even greater economic burden.

Beyond dialogue, she disclosed that participating countries were expected to return home with practical action plans to address youth unemployment through work-based learning immediately.

“There is value in talking,” she remarked, “but there is even greater value in walking the talk.”

Survey exposes deep structural weaknesses. Presenting findings from a survey alongside Country Partnerships Manager, GAN Global, Clara Tavares, Rowan identified several structural barriers undermining youth employment across Africa.

The survey found widespread skills mismatch, limited availability of formal jobs, weak school-to-work transitions and low employer engagement.

Nigeria, the report noted, continues to rely heavily on informal training systems with limited structured certification.

It stated that employers reported that existing training programmes often fail to produce job-ready candidates, while apprenticeships remain expensive, complicated to administer and unsupported by adequate incentives. Recognising these barriers, stakeholders need to consider strategies to overcome funding constraints, policy gaps, and cultural attitudes that may hinder the expansion of quality apprenticeship programmes in Nigeria and across Africa.

Young people, on the other hand, face poor access to quality opportunities, training that rarely translates into employment, and apprenticeship programmes that are often unpaid or of poor quality.

Government and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) systems were also found to suffer from fragmentation, weak implementation and limited employer participation.

To reverse the trend, GAN Global recommended the regional adoption of national apprenticeship standards, fostering a sense of shared purpose and hope among countries working together to address youth employment.

The organisation also advocated certification systems that recognise acquired skills and better matching mechanisms linking young people to employers.

While apprenticeships offer economic returns, Rowan argued that apprenticeships should no longer be viewed as corporate philanthropy but as an investment capable of generating measurable returns.

According to her, the benefits of apprenticeships in action are that employers benefit through reduced recruitment costs, improved staff retention, higher productivity and access to workers trained specifically for their operational needs.

She said young people gain smoother transitions into employment, practical work experience, stronger employability and income opportunities.

For economies, she said, structured apprenticeships contribute to lower unemployment, higher productivity, stronger economic growth and greater social inclusion.

The guide emphasised that quality apprenticeships combine structured classroom learning with productive work inside real business environments, allowing participants to acquire technical knowledge alongside workplace competencies.

Calling for collaboration and not working in silos, Project Manager at the International Organisation of Employers, Raman Moura, said the initiative deliberately assembled employers’ organisations, TVET institutions and youth organisations because no single stakeholder can solve the unemployment crisis alone.

According to him, each participating country is expected to produce a realistic national action plan that can be implemented after the programme.

He explained that Nigeria was selected to host the initiative because of NECA’s institutional strength, its capacity to mobilise stakeholders and the country’s strategic importance within Africa.

“Nigeria has one of the biggest youth unemployment challenges on the continent. If things are implemented correctly, Nigeria can lead the way and become a model for others,” he said.

He urged employers to open their organisations to apprenticeship programmes, arguing that businesses ultimately benefit financially from investing in workforce development.

“There is a return on investment,” he noted.

He further stressed that training institutions must work closely with employers to ensure graduates possess the exact competencies industries require.

“We cannot work in silos. Even if we have different agendas, we still need to achieve things together,” Moura said.

He expressed optimism that the initiative, the first of its kind, would eventually be replicated across other African regions and even beyond the continent.

Pushing for private-sector leadership, NECA Director-General, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, described the dialogue as timely, given Nigeria’s rising youth unemployment and persistent skills mismatch.

According to him, NECA has consistently promoted youth employability through partnerships with the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and other organisations, particularly around technical and vocational education.

However, he said that elevating the conversation to regional and global levels would amplify the urgency for countries to prioritise employability over education that produces certificates without jobs.

” What we need are the right skills that will enable graduates to secure employment, not simply the right education without a consequential effect of getting jobs,” Oyerinde said.

He described the initiative as NECA’s contribution to Nigeria’s broader agenda of skills development, employment generation and economic recovery.

Although the government did not directly organise the programme, he disclosed that recommendations emerging from the dialogue would be shared with the Federal Ministry of Labour and other relevant stakeholders.

Beyond dialogue, the discussions reinforced a growing reality confronting Nigeria: producing graduates alone will not solve unemployment if industries continue to struggle to find skilled workers. With employers demanding practical competencies, training institutions operating largely independent of industry needs, and millions of young people unable to transition successfully into work, the country risks wasting one of its greatest assets—its youthful population.

The consensus from labour experts, employers and skills advocates is that reversing the trend will require a shift from certificate-driven education to employer-led learning, stronger apprenticeship systems, coordinated public-private partnerships and sustained investment in technical skills.
They argued that unless the reforms move beyond conference halls into concrete national policies and workplace practices, Nigeria’s demographic advantage could become a growing economic liability rather than the engine of growth many envision.