Akakan Umoh
Nigeria’s Ambassador to Germany, Sen. Ita Solomon Enang, has faulted the country’s tertiary education system for producing graduates who lack practical and job-ready abilities, urging the government to prioritise skill acquisition over paper qualifications.
Enang called for a fundamental shift in the country’s education and employment strategy, if the nation is to bridge the development gap with advanced economies.
Making the call in a statement on Wednesday, he said the global economy now rewards competence over credentials.
According to him, his diplomatic experience in Germany has reinforced his conviction that practical skills, not degrees, are driving prosperity in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
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“The least skill one has in any field and can deliver service in carpentry, woodwork, electricals, masonry, the built environment, farming and food processing, culturing and harvesting from the blue economy, the information technology world, tailoring, manufacturing, and indeed any skill at all, places you to earn and be employable more and faster than one with a chain of degrees and multiple layered certificates,” Enang said.
He described the reality as “the whole truth” about economies that are progressing, while lamenting that Nigeria continues to “celebrate certificates without skills.”
“Even their educational system is tailored towards this while our university and tertiary curriculum still floats and produces unskilled products with documents without employable potentials,” he said.
He cited Germany’s “dual education system,” which integrates classroom instruction with apprenticeships, as a model Nigeria should adopt.
The Ambassador said the system explains why artisans and technicians in developed countries enjoy dignity, job security and competitive pay.
Enang argued that harnessing these sectors would reduce youth unemployment and position Nigeria to benefit from global demand for skilled labor.
He called on the federal and state governments, education stakeholders, parents and young people to embrace Technical and Vocational Education and Training, TVET, and to embed apprenticeships in university and polytechnic programmes.
“Please, let’s just change our education system, because the world has moved away from our strategy,” he said.
The Ambassador’s intervention comes at a time of high graduate unemployment and increased migration of Nigerians abroad.
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National Bureau of Statistics data shows a mismatch between the number of graduates and available jobs, even as construction and manufacturing firms continue to import skilled artisans.
Sen. Enang concluded that for Nigeria to remain competitive, the national focus must shift from “certificate chasing” to “skill building.”
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“The future of work belongs to those who can solve problems with their hands, their minds, and technology,” he said.
