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Experts seek policies to address youth unemployment 

By Adaku Onyenucheya
16 August 2018   |   4:21 am
As Nigeria joined the rest of the world to mark the International Youth Day (IYD), experts have charged the government to create policies that would proffer solutions to the rising spate of unemployment among youths.


As Nigeria joined the rest of the world to mark the International Youth Day (IYD), experts have charged the government to create policies that would proffer solutions to the rising spate of unemployment among youths.
 
The IYD with the theme: “Safe Spaces for Youth” is observed yearly on August 12 as an awareness day designated by the United Nations, for the purpose of drawing the attention of government and others to a given set of cultural and legal issues surrounding youth worldwide.The experts, at Poise Graduate Finishing Academy, Lekki, Lagos stressed that there was urgent need to develop framework to address the skills mismatch in the labour market.
 
The Executive Director, She Writes Woman, Hauwa Ojeifo, bemoaned the nation’s tertiary education curricula, which she said was outdated and not properly aligned to the needs of the modern labour market.

Ojeifo, particularly mentioned the private sector enterprises, even as she called for increased investment in the education sector.
“There is a problem with our policies and the lawmakers. The education and health system are fundamental parts of an economy that we are not allocating enough budget and attention to on a public policy level.

“We must ensure there are policies in place that will enable the private sector, government and the young people to be able to come together in terms of profitable or productive workforce,” she said.On her part, the Human Resources Business Partner, Nestlé Nigeria, Benedicta Oyiana said the university system is structured in a way that doesn’t prepare the students to suit the work place, which according to her is the reason most graduates fail in their job interviews.

On ways to bridge the gap in youth unemployment, Oyiana said would require a revisit to the education curriculum as well as have social enterprises and corporate organisations pitch in to solve the problems.Speaking on the theme of the IYD, the Managing Director, Poise Graduate Finishing Academy, Asher Adeniyi restated the institution’s commitment towards preparing young executives to fit into the workspaces by bridging the skill gaps.

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