A good way of measuring the economy of a nation is to look at its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) indicators. The GDP of any economy is the monetary value of all final goods and services produced by all people within the countrywithin a given period.The rise of the GDP rates are desirable because it comes with more investment due to the opportunities created, more personal income, job growth and general well being of the citizenry…all things being equal.
Statistics from Tradingeconomics.com, Central Bank of Nigeria reports a 3.23% actual, -12.9% previous as at 2017-09-05; actual of 8.97% as at 2017-11-20; 4.29% as at 2018-02-27. Statistics from the same source (Tradingeconomics.com, U.S Bureau of Economic Statistics) reports a steady growth of 1.35%, 2%, and 2.875% from 2015 to 2017 respectively. While I do not intend to get into the economics of GDP, I choose to evaluate the one of the key drivers of GDP outcome- the QUALITY and POTENTIAL of the WORKFORCE. It will be stating the obvious that, a nation composed of skilled manpower have a higher rate of productivity and innovation than one in lack of such vibrant skillful and value creating workforce.People make a nation; the value of a nation is a direct reflection of the quality of its people.
The Human Capital Index of 2016 identified the top 10 economies leveraging their human capital potential and establishing a prepared workforce for competitive economics as Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark, Netherlands, Canada and Belgium in ascending order.
Leveraging the human capital of a country entails amongst other things- the considerate investment in the educational and scholastic preparation of the future workforce, use of value-creating and current training curriculum for teachers and students that meets the demand ahead, opens up opportunities for students (the future workforce) to explore and apply themselves in novel areas, provides internship programs for educational and labour market systems learning integration and development of right skills for easy transition to the labour market.
Our reality in Nigeria is an increasing population growth rate (about 3.5%), brain drain, declining jobs, high unemployment rates greatly attributable to inadequate skills and misalignment of skills with that demanded by the employer,demographic shift, a changing world of work due to globalization and technological advancement, decline in our educational values, obsolete school curriculum, poor pedagogy style of teaching and general inefficiency of some regulatory bodies entails an interesting world of work ahead of us.
In the light of these realities, what measurable solutions do we have to deploy if we seek to improve the economic opportunities and competitiveness of our youth and the resultant GDP outcome of our economy? What interventions can we begin to implement today?
It is suggested that as an immediate intervention measure,
- Our educational and training system must reinvent itself to churn out candidates with the needed right skills- technical and soft skills. By reviewing our school curriculum to make more relevant, in line with 21st Century market-driven skills (STEAM skills) and realities;
- A review of collegiate curriculum and capacity building programs of our teachers, curriculum developers to equip them how to not only improve quality of content knowledge but also how to incorporate the diverse learning styles (visual, kinesthetic and auditory) in the pedagogical strategies used in teaching to ensure the uniqueness of each student is considered and students actually learn for increased knowledge transfer and application in innovative ventures;
- A review of the assessment format of our students in ways that reward not ability to regurgitate lesson taught but the actual use of the knowledge acquired to anticipate and solve problems;
- Incorporate School programs that enlighten parents and care givers on how to support their wards in diverse ventures in recognition of our different areas of talents, endowment as the theory of Multiple Intelligence (Howard Gardner of HBS) posits. This understanding when made, will reduce the focus on typical careers-Law, Medicine, Engineering to careers of the future;
- Incorporate Career Counseling programs in schools as an intentional measure to assist students in better career planning and decision-making (e.g. subject-choices, identification of areas of interest and preference through psychometric testing, self reflection etc.) as well as non-academic learning initiatives. This provides opportunity for personalized guidance particularly forstruggling students for more educational inclusion. self-sufficiency and value creation.
- Community Engagement Initiatives in schools both at the secondary and tertiary institutions. The problems to be solved reside in the community and the earlier students get used to seeing and seeking solutions to them, the earlier they are able to engage in deep critical thinking on producing goods and services that speak to the challenges of our society;
- More educational and employer-labour market partnership for internship(students) and externship (teachers) opportunities for better classroom connection to work.
Knowledge is key for growth and development. Creativity thrives best when the brain is engaged at it most optimal and stimulating level. The products from our educational and training systems will be better of and richer in quality if we are more intentional on what, how and why we teach. A vibrant and relevant system will encourage students to apply themselves in varied and distinct domains that leads to positive ripple effects- low employment rates, reduction in crime, self-fulfillment, increasing GDP etc.
It is in doing what we know how to do best that we are able to leave our comfort zones, do simple but profound work that adds value to our communities and our world.
…HELENA FREY
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