How to get employed in this Century
If there is one resource that Nigeria has in abundance, it is not oil that I guess you’re thinking, it is the teeming youth population. The youth population of Nigeria and Africa by extension is the envy of world powers. In fact, our population is expected to double by 2050.
On the other hand, if there is one problem that Nigeria has which won’t go away, it is not the corruption that you’re thinking, it is unemployment.
At some point, our vice-president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo envisaged unemployment in Nigeria to rise to 33% by the end of 2020. In other words, up to 40 million people (youths inclusive) are likely to be unemployed by December. One indication of the high rate of unemployment in the country is the huge amount of people who apply for ‘universal jobs’ like N-power, Police, Prison, Immigration and so on. For clearer context, some months ago, N-power opened its portal for youths to apply. The website had over 1 million applications in less than 48 hours! In just 16 days, over 5 million people reportedly applied. That microcosmically reflects the magnitude of unemployment in this country.
To add, this is the 22nd century. Yes, you read right – 22nd century, not the 21st century. With 21st century came the proliferation of the internet and its attendant gadgets, as well as the preponderance of technological solutions. The previous (21st) century brought ease and convenience in terms of transportation, communication, to name but a few.
In the present (22nd) century, only ease does not cut it. Digitisation and digitalisation have broken into the employment space and the scourge of the pandemic only hastened the inevitability. The nature of jobs currently available is heavily dependent on the internet and its relatives. Now you see positions such as digital marketing officer, copywriter, software associate, programmer, social media manager, executive assistants, research analysts, networking associate, content developers, SEO specialists, business developers and so on.
Gone are the clerical days that you only need to wear white and black. Even front desk officers are now required to be social media savvy. The implication of this is that many of the courses on offer at our tertiary institutions are getting phased out. Some were not even relevant in the Nigerian society to start with. You know these courses, do I need to mention? Yet even as the times change, our curricula at schools do not. However, this is a talk for another time.
What matters right now is that we need to change our perspectives as youths. For someone who studied forestry or sociology, it is quite obvious that they are not professional courses. One needs more. So, unlearn and relearn!
Digital marketing is not so difficult to understand. Graphics only require the same energy you gave WAEC. To fully grasp coding and web development, you won’t spend up to the four years you spent in getting a certificate which hasn’t got you a job. On high demand particularly are programming and graphics jobs. Yet, youths prefer to the sit-down-from-8-to-4 kind of jobs.
This reality is why some people be changing jobs at will or work for more than one organisation while some would not even go beyond stage one of an interview.
Unemployment is real but relevance is importanter. If you see a massive job opening and you can’t see where you can perform at all – even if it is to manage or learn on the go, then you may need to check your skill set.
This is the 22nd century and there is an abundance of jobs actually. The big question, however, is if we youths are not indeed our biggest obstacle because the 22nd century jobs require skills, not certificates.
