Producing First Class Graduates without vocational skills makes no sense ― KWASU VC

Professor Muhammed Mustapha Akanbi, the Vice Chancellor of Kwara State University, has averred that it makes no sense to graduate with first class in the universities without job enabling skills.

The VC, made the comment on the heels of the recent declaration by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, that about 21.7 million Nigerians are unemployed.

Addressing the press during a working visit to some selected government agencies in Abuja to mobilise support for the University, the Vice-Chancellor said that it was pointless for universities in the country to graduate first class students who will later become jobless because they don’t have additional job-enabling skills.

Akanbi revealed that KWASU in its attempt to offer a solution to the unemployment battling Nigerian graduates resolved to imbibing the culture of producing graduates that are readily engaged in one job-enabling vocation before and after graduation.

According to the former Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin, UNILORIN, “Our university is a university of community development and entrepreneurship. I like the fact that you appreciate what we are doing with entrepreneurship; that centre is being rejigged and rejuvenated.

“It is now called the centre for vocational, technical and entrepreneurship because we don’t want to teach entrepreneurship just in theory. We get our students involved in vocational things and technical aspects.

“Already, we encourage our students to engage in different entrepreneurial skills, acquire, hold and consider all certificates important. It does not make any sense if you are a first-class student and you are looking for a job. And I mean First class in any programme.”

On training University’s students to be self-reliant instead of job seekers after graduation, Prof. Akanbi said KWASU, renowned for its entrepreneurial prowess, has a programme that makes it mandatory for every student to own a business.

He said, “You will see students engage in things like making face masks, face shields, hand sanitizers, some are into tailoring, some are into carpentry, some are into what I call mechanical automobile repair and things like that.

“And in the past, the CAC has given awards to our students because we are talking of every year almost 2,000 students registering with the CAC because when you come in, it is expected that it is not going to be only a classroom thing.”

Speaking further, Prof. Akanbi, who assumed office as VC on 1st April, 2020, expressed his readiness to reposition the University for better performance.

He said, “My plan is to move KWASU to a lofty height better than I found it, and to achieve this broad mandate, I intend to ensure a conducive learning environment. I also intend to pursue quality-based research.

“One of the things we want to encourage is that research should not just be for research sake, we don’t want our research work to end up on the shelves. Our research would be geared towards finding solutions to contemporary challenges.”

He said the University has expressed its readiness to ensure its students participate more actively in the nation’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs, sub-sector.

He further stated that the University would leverage on the recently amended Companies and Allied Matters Act, CAMA, to ensure the institution’s students float more businesses.

He said, “Every student that gets admitted into KWASU is expected to start business, a registered business.

“President Buhari just assented to the new CAMA after about 30years and that had helped the quality of the ease of doing business. KWASU has started certain policies that this new CAMA is going to help to ensure that our students register a business enterprise, like a trade which you will register with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) so that what we teach you in class you are able to start it while in school.

“You will see students engaged in things such as making face masks, face shields, hand sanitizers. Some are into tailoring, some are into carpentry, some are into what I call mechanical automobile repair and things like that.”

“I have just been reminded that in the past the CAC has given awards to our students because we are talking of every year almost 2,000 students registering with the CAC, because when you come in it is expected that it is not going to be only a classroom thing; so we take you through some technical, some provisional, some pure business enterprises,” he added.

He said the University’s entrepreneurship scheme is aimed at churning a crop of graduates who are job creators instead of those who will be dependent on civil service offers.

“The plan is that we don’t want students who will graduate and go and meet their parents that they are looking for a job. We want a wealth creator, we are not looking for students who just want to work in government sector but students who can start their own businesses and become entrepreneurs in their own rights,” he said.