The management of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Thursday, unveiled a career centre aimed at addressing the high rate of unemployment in the country.
The Rector of the Polytechnic, Adeoye Odedeji, while unveiling the centre located on the polytechnic’s campus, noted that its establishment was in response to a recent directive by the National Board for Technical Education.
He stressed that the NBTE had issued the directive at a stakeholders’ meeting held in Abuja recently, with a mandate for the centre to bridge the gap between academia and industry.
Odedeji expressed concern that the rising unemployment in the country could be attributed to skill mismatches.
He said, “What we have now is a situation in which someone is highly qualified but under-skilled. They are under-skilled because, while in school, they do not have access to the necessary information, advice, and services. That’s where the Centre for Career Services comes in.”
According to Odedeji, the centre would ensure that graduates of the institution are well-prepared with the requisite skills needed to thrive in the job market and become job creators.
He continued, “The main focus of the centre is that whatever programme a student is undertaking here, it must prepare them such that, when they graduate, they can either start their own business or become self-employed. If they do not become self-employed, they must have sufficient information to enable them to find a job or be employable.
“So, this centre fully supports the various efforts being undertaken by the Centre for Skill Development and the Centre for Entrepreneurship. That’s why all of them are housed in the same facility. It’s a hub, so we can call this area a skill hub.”
“I want to encourage the heads of all three units here to collaborate and work as a team to achieve the major objective of reducing unemployment in Nigeria, ensuring that graduates no longer face the challenge of skill mismatches, and preventing the discrepancy between fields of study and job opportunities.”
Also speaking, the pioneering Director of the centre, Shola Adeosun, highlighted that the centre would seek to find solutions to the problem of unemployment in the country and promote academic excellence within the institution and nationwide.
He urged students and alumni of the institution to take advantage of the centre’s initiatives to address job deficits.
“The centre is an initiative of TETFUND. The objective is to find solutions to the problem of unemployment in Nigeria, and the centre is charged with a lot of responsibilities.
“As we unveil the unit, the mission, vision, and objectives, brief as they are, will signal to the academic community that there is a new initiative set to accelerate academic excellence at Moshood Abiola Polytechnic,” Adeosun said.
