Appraising The Employability And Adaptability Of Private University Graduautes In The Nigerian Labour Market
Oluwasola Omolola Mrs
Communication and Media Studies, Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti-State, Nigeria.
Keywords: Education, private universities, employers of labour, educational standard
Abstract
The restoration of democracy in Nigeria has brought tremendous improvements to many sectors of the nation’s economy. The liberalization of the educational sector is one of the major breakthroughs recorded in the country since the return of democracy. With the privatization of education, the number of private polytechnics and universities have grown in leaps and bounds. In spite, expectations have not been adequately met in relevant literature when it comes to appraising the entrance of private investors in the nation’s university educational sector particularly as it affects meaningfully contributing to national growth and development. This limitation led to this study which was primarily designed to appraise the employability and adaptability of products of private universities graduates in selected organizations in Lagos State. Survey Research design and key informant interview was adopted for the study. A total of 80 human resources managers and gainfully employed graduates of private universities were purposively and conveniently selected. Findings revealed that graduates of private universities compete favourably with their counterparts from public institutions even though some of the graduates fall short of expectation in terms of connection between grades obtained and the practical world. It was therefore concluded that private university education can be improved by deliberate and continuous move to bridge the classroom-industry gap.