Review varsity curriculums to tackle unemployment, NECA tasks NUC

Chairman of Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA), South-South zone, Dr. Chris Biriowu, has charged the National Universities Commission (NUC) to review university curriculums to match skills with grades for employability growth.

Biriowu noted that some universities were churning out graduates without skills required by companies, stressing that what the nation faces is not necessarily unemployment but employability challenge.

According to him, when graduates are employable, their standard of living will improve and it will also enhance growth of the nation’s economy.

Biriowu stressed the need for NUC to collaborate with universities to come up with new curriculums to make skills being taught align with requirements for employments both within and outside the country.

Biriowu stated this in Port Harcourt during a Job Career and Employability Fair, with the theme: “Promoting Employability, Skills Development and Decent Work,” organised by NECA.

He said: “We are also partnering with government to see how we can place already trained graduates on a scheme with various organisations so they can acquire skills needed for employment.

Rivers State Commissioner for Employment Generation and Economic Empowerment, Dr. Leloonu Nwibubas, urged graduates and jobseekers to develop themselves with skills.

Also, the Head, Compensation, Benefit and Industrial Relations, Notore Chemical Industries PLC, Mr. Natureal Nkipnee, urge jobseekers be ready to provide solutions to potential employers.

He said: “It is either you are up-skilling or you are right skilling, employers will demand people with good cognitive abilities, people, who have the right competences to pursue any particular kind of delivery; so, it is pertinent for jobseekers to acquire right skills.”