Fuad Boluwatife, a last 12 months pupil of a federal college has been working at a legislation agency since the Association of Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) determined to embark on a nationwide strike. He began working at the agency in 2020 – the first time he skilled a strike as an undergraduate. He had an settlement with the agency to work there each time ASUU goes on strike. Apart from incomes cash as he works, Fuad says that working at the agency has helped him achieve the information he wouldn’t have gotten in the classroom.
It’s been seven months since the strike started. The never-ending disagreements between the federal authorities and the ASUU physique point out that the strike is right here to remain. Fuad is only one of the few college students affected by the strike and dealing in the meantime. The majority of scholars are at house, ready and hoping that they’d return to highschool very quickly.
Not many college students are as fortunate as Fuad. While some have discovered it simpler to begin work instantly, pending when the strike can be over, others have been caught at house, sending out purposes upon purposes with no constructive response. Some have began companies to maintain afloat, and others are serving to their dad and mom. In all, we should admit one factor: the strike is just not solely messing with the schooling of the college students, it’s messing up the trajectory of their lives.
We appear to reside in a world that’s now fast-paced. People are taking on the workforce of their teenagers and early twenties. Recruiters are requesting years of expertise even for entry-level roles. Companies at the moment are asking potential interns to have a portfolio and expertise. There’s an age restrict and sure grades required for a lot of roles. When you disrupt folks’s lecturers, it not solely impacts their grades, it impacts their profession journeys even earlier than they embark on them. It wastes their time and reduces their possibilities of competing pretty with their counterparts from non-public organisations and even globally.
With the strike turning into extra frequent – the present being the sixteenth strike in 22 years – we should start to ask how, as a folks, we can mitigate its results on college students’ livelihood, their profession path, and their future. One approach to do that is to have firms and organisations step in.
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There’s an order wherein we’re anticipated to progress by means of life – go to highschool, graduate from college, get a job… With entry to digital jobs and sources, this order has been positively disrupted. But are Nigerian college students really catching up? There’s a digital divide in entry to distant studying and expertise in Nigeria. A 2020 report reveals that 60% of Nigeria’s over 200 million residents are nonetheless not linked to the web whereas solely 10% are lively on social media. This implies that greater than half of the inhabitants doesn’t have entry to the web. While expertise has mitigated the results of unemployment in Nigeria, it will not be the final answer in a rustic with this excessive stage of poverty and inequality.
What then can we do? We have industrial attachments, internship applications, free programs, and lots of extra. But can we do extra to particularly goal college students and assist them earn whereas gaining real-time expertise every time ASUU goes on strike? These applications will give them monetary stability, assist them achieve expertise and information and at the similar time give them sufficient time to review pending when the strike can be over. Perhaps firms can create extra internship applications – not the ones that request years of expertise or portfolios, or the ones that make interns work as full-time workers whereas paying them peanuts or nothing. There’s a draw back to this; the volatility of the strike can be a barrier to firms that rent these college students. But in the similar vein, the firms achieve from the college students’ expertise and information. It’s a win-win.
During the strike, many college students change into redundant and skills are being wasted. The way forward for the nation rests closely on the shoulders of the youths, however these similar youths are withering away at house. They are shedding enthusiasm for the classroom however at the similar time can’t be totally built-in into the workforce. There’s an enormous hole that must be crammed.
We all should start to consider how you can faucet into this pool of skills. What can we do in our little corners? How can we assist these college students? As a founder, what can you do? Do you may have applications focusing on college students affected by the strike, that may assist them compete with their counterparts globally? Is there a program to additionally assist them preserve their jobs even when the strike is over? As an HR personnel, what can you do to create area for college students in the organisation? If firms and organisations begin to make use of college students like Fuad, with the chance of them coming again throughout one other strike or holidays, other than serving to with their expertise or skills, it might additionally put together them forward on what to anticipate in the labour market once they graduate from college. It’ll additionally assist them construct their portfolios and make higher and sooner profession selections.
Fuad says that since he began at the agency, he has recognised how advantageous firms can be to college students throughout this strike. He’s been financially secure and can care for some duties at house, which earns him respect and has significantly improved his psychological well being.
We reside in powerful occasions. More than ever earlier than, we should be proactive in securing the way forward for Nigerian college students. We can’t look ahead to the authorities to resolve this disaster; precedent actions have proven in any other case. We can’t additionally wait for college students to depart college after which be a part of the avalanche of jobless graduates scouting for jobs. In a rustic the place solely 10% of individuals have entry to the web, we additionally can’t assume that college students will simply get distant jobs. And time is working out. So how can we bridge this hole? Have higher recommendations? We’re all ears.
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https://www.bellanaija.com/2022/10/private-sector-asuu-strike-students/
