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121
Etuk Reuben Ufot,
Center for Educational Development and Career Initiative (CEDCI) and Ibom Metropolitan Polytechnic, Uyo, Nigeria E-mail: reuben.etuk@gmail.com Etuk Grace Reuben, Department of Social Work, University of Calabar, Nigeria E-mail: graycetuk@yahoo.com (Corresponding Author)
YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA: LESSONS FROM TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL MANPOWER DIVIDE IN THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Abstract. Youth unemployment is a socio-economic problem that every government strives to give maximum attention due to the adverse impacts it can have on the development of a nation. For instance, it increases the levels of poverty, crime and other social vices, which can impede development. As a way of addressing this problem, it became necessary to carry out an investigation into expatriate employment pattern in the Nigerian petroleum industry, with a view to providing some level of insight into the rationale for the high youth unemployment situation in the volatile Niger Delta region of Nigeria and in the country in general, where there are many educated youths whose education should have afforded some form of employment. Specifically, this study seeks to examine why many foreign nationals occupy the low and middle level employment positions in the Nigerian oil and gas sector, while youths in the country's oil rich region of Niger Delta and other parts of the country are almost shut out. A qualitative, comparative study of 148 nationals and 112 foreigners working in the petroleum sector was carried out using guided in-depth and key informant interviews. Also, Focus Group Discussion was carried out with unemployed youths and key stake holders in a major oil and gas industry in the Niger Delta region. Results from major themes reveal that while there is a very high aspiration among the young Nigerians to acquire higher academic qualifications, they generally lack required competencies, skills, experiences and certifications required to gain employment in the industry. On the hand, while their foreign counterpart may not have so much of higher academic degrees, they pass through skill development training/educational institutions, which certify them on the industry-required competencies. The findings implicate the Nigerian educational and technical manpower development strategies, amongst other issues. Thus, it is recommended that policies and strategies that will strengthen Technical and Vocational Education (TVE), and specialized institutional training in the country be put in place. This will make it possible for some of the sustainable development goals including, poverty eradication, quality education, decent work and economic growth, to be achieved.
Keywords: Unemployment, Youth, Foreign Nationals, Technical and Vocational Education (TVE), Certification, Competencies.
Introduction Youth unemployment rates everywhere are consider-
In 2007, the World Bank brought to fore the world's his- ably higher than adults' rates and constitute a major con-toric "youth bulge" of 1.3 billion young people, and stressed cern to countries across the globe and the reason is not the urgent need for governments and other development stake- far-fetched. Youth unemployment leaves lasting negative holders to invest in this future generation. Since then, efforts effects on the welfare of young people and goes further to have been geared towards helping youths navigate and transit adversely affect the economic performance and social sta-through this stage of life successfully. However, the challenge bility of a nation.
is that the global youth unemployment rate has been on the In Nigerian, the population is currently estimated at
increase since 2007, reaching its peak in 2009 (ILO, 2012). Fur- about 200 million. Of this, the youth constitute about 51% thermore, since then, the rate has remained close to the 2009 (NBS, 2012). This high population of youth and the attendant peak and was estimated at 12.6% (which translates to about high unemployment rate present a great threat to the stability 74.6million youths) in 2011. In 2012, it was projected at 12.7%, and growth of the political and socio-economic fabrics of the with only little improvement expected by 2016. nation. It is therefore not surprising that most of the boiling
conflicts in the country including the Niger Delta militancy and Boko Haran insurgency have been linked to youth unemployment (Adebayo, [1]).
Despite the current unemployment challenges, especially as it affects the youths, Nigeria still seems to have appreciable opportunities to absorb a good number of its youths in to the labour market. A careful look at national dailies reveals the advertisement of job vacancies across different Nigerian industries. So the question is: why is the unemployment situation still persisting so hard especially among young Nigerians? Even more disturbing is the fact that in the face of the biting youth unemployment situation in Nigeria, as Ezea [18] pointed out, there is still a notable presence of foreigners in the country taking up different cadres of employment, including the ones deemed low and middle levels, in the hospitality, construction as well as the oil and gas industries spread across the country. Thus, one wonders if there is something these foreigners have or do that young people in Nigeria do not have or do; and if so, again, one cannot but ponder on what implication this could have on the Nigerian employment and manpower planning policy.
To understand the concerns outlined so far, the petroleum industry is chosen for the purpose of this analysis, to explore the unemployment dynamics in Nigeria. The choice of the petroleum industry is not farfetched. First, this sector has a vital role to play in the Nigerian economy both as a major source of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and as a major stakeholder in the development and employment of labour in the country. The industry is said to generate over 95 per cent of the nation's foreign exchange worth over US$8 billion annually (representing about 85% of revenue generated by the Nigerian government). However, up to 70% of the generated earnings is often channelled abroad through outsourcing of intermediate input, while indigenous companies only manage to lay their hands on a token of about 8.3%, (Olorunsogo [16]). With regards to employment, the industry has witnessed the influx of expatriates, making it one of the sectors with the single highest population of foreign nationals. This is so serious that in order to bring the issue of influx of foreign nationals into the sector under check, the Nigerian government recognizes the need for higher local content in the oil and gas industry and came up with the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act (NOGICD), which was signed into law in 2010. The Act aimed at ensuring the creation of employment through the award of contracts to domestic intermediates, as well as the generation of foreign earnings, known to be channelled abroad as a result of the importation of intermediate inputs used in production and service delivery in the industry. Furthermore, the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board was established to increase and build local capacity of
individuals and firms, establish linkages to channel positive externalities appropriately to other sectors of the economy and boost the industry's contribution to the nation's GDP (www.ncdmb.com).
Secondly, and very importantly, most of the Petroleum installations are located in the Niger Delta Region. This region is known for youth restiveness which manifests in form ofvices like kidnapping and militancy, all ofwhich unemployment is believed to be their leading causal factor. Moreover, some parts of the region are among the least developed in the southern part of Nigeria. As such, understanding the youth unemployment dynamics of the region will set the stage for gaining insights into the youth unemployment dynamics in Nigeria.
Gaining insights into the concerns so far raised will have a significant implication for addressing to a significant extent the Nigerian youth unemployment situation and this paper seeks to provide some of the needed insights. To achieve this, it is important to address the following crucial questions:
• Why are many low/middle level jobs being taken up by foreign nationals in some Nigerian economic sectors, like the oil and gas sector, while there are many Nigerian youths with high enough academic qualifications?
• Is something these foreigners have or do that young people in Nigeria do not have, or do?
• What implication could this have on the Nigerian employment and manpower planning policy?
Methodology
To provide answers to the questions raised above, and gain the much needed insights into the dynamics of youth unemployment in Nigeria, a comparative study of foreign and Nigerian nationals working in an oil and gas industry was undertaken. The study was basically exploratory by design. However, qualitative techniques were employed to obtain primary data. Subjects studied were majorly contractor staff of ExxonMobil Nigeria, a major oil and gas industry operating in the Niger Delta Region.
Data for the study were obtained via:
• Guided in-depth interviews with purposively sampled foreign and Nigerian nationals altogether 112 and 148 respectively.
• Focus group discussion with 5 representatives of unemployed youth who aspire to become employees of the industry, to determine their knowledge level and perception of employment dynamics in the sector, as well as to gain reflection into the outcome of the in-depth interviews above;
• Key informant interview of 3 nationals and 2 expatriates who are in managerial positions in their different
contracting companies of Exxon Mobil, to verify and strengthened interview findings by providing a broader view of the concerns raised. Findings and Discussion of Major Themes: The findings in this investigation centred on three major themes namely: educational qualification and competency certification; age at the time of employment as well as work attitude and possession of soft skills. They are presented follows: Educational Qualification and Competency Certification
Of the 148 Nigerian nationals who participated in this study, 16(10.8%) had a post graduate qualification; 59 (39.9%) had a graduate level qualification of either a degree or higher national diploma; 48(32.4%) reported having ordinary diploma or equivalents; while only 21(14.2%) where still with secondary school qualification. In the case of
foreign nationals, they were found to be more concentrated in intermediate level education in that as much as of them had just 54.5% secondary school qualification, while 35.7% reported having ordinary diploma or equivalents. Unlike Nigerian nationals, only 7.1% and 2.7% had graduate level and post graduate level qualifications respectively. However, of this 148 Nigerian subjects as table 3b shows, those who indicated having obtained Tradesmen/vocational certification and professional qualification were merely 41.2% and 29.1% respectively as against 48.2% and 51.8% respectively observed among foreign nationals. A finding of this nature shows that whereas Nigerian youths spend time pursuing higher level academic qualifications, foreign nationals concentrate on acquiring professional qualification and competency certifications, which are often the major bases for their employment in many industries as is the case with the oil and gas sector.
Table 1. - Distribution of Respondents by Highest Academic Qualification
Nigerians Foreigners
Academic Qualifications Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
Primary Education 4 2.7 0 0.0
High/secondary sch. 21 14.2 61 54.5
National Diploma 48 32.4 40 35.7
Graduate Level(First Degree/HND) 59 39.9 8 7.1
Post graduate qualifications 16 10.8 3 2.7
Total 148 100 112 100
Source: Field Survey, 2017
In summary, while there is very popular aspiration among the Nigerian youth towards higher academic qualifications as bases for employment, most of them seem to be unaware of the competencies, skills, experiences and professional training required in many industries and when they discover, they do so
too late most of the times. This explains why Aladekomo [4], refer to Nigeria as a 'qualification economy' and raised concern over the increasing attractiveness of qualification in the face of massive retrenchment in the formal sector of the nation's economy and massive unemployment of the 'qualified'.
Table 2. - Distribution of Respondents by Highest Qualification
Nigerians Forei gners
Academic Qualifications Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
Tradesmen/Vocational certificate 61 41.2 54 48.2
Professional certification 43 29.1 48 51.8
Academic Qualification 44 29.7 0 0.0
TOTAL 148 100 112 100
Source: Field Survey, 2017
What this boils down to is that the youth unemployment situation in Nigeria is compounded by the fact that a large proportion of youths in the country merely possess academic qualifications, but lack competencies and professional skills that would better their chances of securing a place in some of the industrial outfits in the country, many ofwhich require specialized skills and competencies as criteria for employment much
more than just Honours and Bachelors, which countless Nigerian youths possess. Thus, one may well adduce that some of the employment slots occupied by foreign nationals would rather have been have been taken up by youths of Nigerian nationality if they were readily available with the needed specialized skills and competencies. And perhaps, this would have made the current youth unemployment challenge in country less dire.
Age at the Time of Employment
In terms of age, as shown in Table 4 below, it was found that a total of 33 (29.5%) of the foreign workers had already acquired skills that gave them the basis to be employed as expatriates at relatively very young ages of thirty and below compared to 28(18.9%) of Nigerian nationals. What made the difference? Most of the foreign nationals who participated in this study reported starting work early, right after high school, through various craft/apprenticeship programmes. As a consequence, their higher educational and professional trainings fused with their career path. On the other hand, most Nigerian youths as this study revealed do not settle into employment early enough. A good number of them rather spend time trying to acquire higher academic qualifications before they realize the need for a professional training that will certify them for a job. Unfortunately, for many of them, this does not materialize soon enough owing to delays caused by failure of some of them to secure placement in higher institutions early enough. For some it might take them up two to four years or even more before they secure admission into higher institutions.
Secondly, there is also delay generated by the educational system itself. While in these institutions of higher learning, a good number of them, especially the ones in public institutions, do not get to graduate on time due to frequent strike actions by staff of these institutions. These coupled with additional one year compulsory national service, elongates the time many Nigerian youths finally become ready for employment. Sometimes, before some of them are finally ready
General Attitude and Employability Skills
The Key informants in this study generally agreed that foreign nationals have very good working attitude and culture. One of these key informants reported as follows: "apart from having the expertise, foreign nationals are reliable; they can work for longer hours and for affordable cost; they are also resourceful, with some having excellent computing as well as other complementary and soft skills that an employer can rely on. To corroborate this, a study by Ezea [5], on why building
for employment, they would have become older than the maximum age required in order to be offered employment in some industries. For reason, there is massive age fraud by many Nigerian youths, in which case many of them swear age affidavits downsizing their ages. Sometimes an individual can cut off as much as 5 to 10 years from his/her actual age, just so as to qualify for certain jobs. The implication of this is that sometimes the individual taking up an employment position is not even a youth any longer, but then has spent all his/her time as youth rather unemployed, trying to 'meet up with the requirements' for employment. And by downsizing ones age to get an employment, those who by age (youths) are actually qualified for the job, are shut out and left unemployed. All these worsen the youth unemployment situation in the country. The inability to get employed early is not without it costs. Early unemployment is reported to be stressful and can leave some scars on the livelihood of the young ones. This is because the unemployed youth will not have the opportunity to build career skills on time (IEG, [10]). Consequently, they face the risk for higher adult unemployment. Thus, it is not surprising to find that only 2(1.4%) of Nigerian Nationals were still working at relatively advanced ages of 61 years and above, compared to 6(5.4%) of foreign nationals. Early unemployment is reported to be linked with career downgrades and lower wages later in life, with a resultant loss in life time earnings (Kahn [11]). Gregg and Tominey (2005) found that individuals in UK can pay as high as 13 to 21% penalty for up to 26 years, as a result of early unemployment.
engineers and contractors prefer foreign artisans found that lack of commitment, poor work attitude, high cost of labour and other similar negative trends which were identified as prevalent among Nigerian artisans were the maj or reasons. Similarly, Arrey [3], maintained that the work culture and behaviour of Nigerians largely present the perception of a people who generally have poor work attitude with low accountability level. Furthermore, Kongvong, in his June 4, [13]. Info Guide Nigeria's article listed among other issues: lack of training in key
Table 3. - Distribution of Respondents by Age
Nigerians Forei gners
Age Range (Years) Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage
20 and below 1 0.7 5 4.5
21-30 27 18.2 28 25.0
31-40 46 31.1 31 27.7
41-50 49 33.1 27 24.1
51-60 23 15.5 15 13.4
61 and above 2 1.4 6 5.4
TOTAL 148 100 112 100
Source: Field Survey, 2017
relevant areas, absence of further training, lack of soft skills like communication and other social skills, as well as possession of out-dated knowledge, lack of direction and mentorship, as some of the reasons Nigerian graduates are not employable. All this point to the fact that, much still has to be done beyond academics to improve the employability of Nigerian youths. Therefore, until progress is made in this regard, there would still be widespread youth unemployment in the country. This has become even more necessary because as Goleman [7] stated, "the rules of work are changing. We are being judged by a new yardstick: not just by how smart we are or by our training and expertise, but also by how well we handle ourselves and each other". There is therefore more to what needs to be done to resolve the problem of youth unemployment in the country than mere acquisition of academic qualifications, which is not even a major hurdle to many Nigerian youths.
Policy Implications for Manpower and Educational Development in Nigeria
Ezea [5], reported that on November 6, 2015, the Nigeria's President, Muhammadu Buhari, directed his ministers to come up with a plan of action for the speedy revitalization and expansion of the nation's vocational training centres. This was necessitated when the president was told, at a meeting with the board of directors of Julius Berger Construction Company, that many construction companies were being forced to bring in skilled workers from abroad because of a shortage of competent construction workers and artisans in the country. The question is; why would a scenario like this play out in a country where there is a teaming population of youths who need jobs? Kravetz [14, 211] stated that "... in many developing countries, educated school leavers are without work and jobs that need doing are without hands". The above statement, made over four decades ago still remains true to a large extent in many African countries today, including Nigeria, and might explain why some vacancies have been and continue to be filled by foreign nationals while Nigerian youths who should have taken up such jobs remain unemployed.
Often, qualifications required to fit into some of these technical or vocational jobs are generally not acquired from schools directly, except where such schools or institutions were established for such specialized training (like the Nigerian Maritime Academy and the Petroleum Training Institute). As such, for individuals to acquire the technical or vocational skills that would qualify them for jobs that require these specialized skills, they need to go beyond acquiring academic qualifications to training in specialized institutions in order to obtain the needed technical or vocational skills. Thus, Nigeria needs to re-visit its policy on technical and vocational education (TVE) with practical actions and not just mere policies and documentations.
The place of TVE in innovations, industrialisation and employment creation cannot be over emphasised. For instance, in order to foster industrial development in Africa, African leaders have been encouraged right from the early days of their independence to embark on technical and vocational education, as well as specialized training, as one of their development priorities (ECA/UNESCO, 1961; Audience Africa, 1975). Unfortunately, there is the tendency to look down on TVE in Nigeria. The technical colleges and polytechnics are seen as being inferior to secondary schools and the universities, respectively. This is evidenced in the poor and discriminatory salary pattern and limited career growth path set for technical and vocational personnel in both private and public sectors. Even the educational system has limited opportunity for further studies for those with TVE (Kerre [12]; Aladekomo, [2]). As such, the demand for TVE has remained generally low. And the cost for the nation is that the training of lower and middle manpower as well as personnel with specialized technical and vocational is neglected in principle.
This neglect shows up in many ways. There is a resultant reduced number of trained lower and middle level manpower (who are equipped with the much needed specialized skills) for industries and private organizations, and this in turn gives rise to continuous unemployment and lack of entrepreneur-ship among youths.
Having a youth population that is equipped with specialized skills can be of tremendous advantage to a country. Countries in Asia for instance, which incidentally have about the highest number foreign nationals serving as expatriates in the country, have had their economies benefit hugely from export of lower and middle level manpower/labours. For some Asian countries, the remittances from labour export have begun to significantly exceed foreign direct investment (FDI), capital market flow, and official development assistance (ODA) and most importantly, support balance of payments and fiscal positions (Pernia [17]). Many developing countries, across the world with excess labour, high level of unemployment and underemployment have therefore positioned themselves to maximise these benefits from labour export. For instance, the Filipinos are reputed as being the third highest recipient of remittances from labour export, after India and Mexico (11.7 billion USD in 2005, making up 10% GDP) thereafter, 14 and 17 billion USD in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Other countries like the East Europe, Latin America, South East Asia, the Middle East and some North African countries have benefited from labour export remittances also (Bakunda and Mpanga, [4]). Thus, the acquisition of skills and expertise in demand will be of benefit to Nigerian youths who dare to do so. It could be of immense benefit to the country as a whole via labour export, which contributes to lifting households out
of poverty, while its multiplier effects can increase spending, with the corresponding remittances to Nigeria as the exporting country. Therefore, Nigeria can adopt a systematic approach to facilitate the acquisition specialized technical and vocational (TVE) skills by youths. Such a move will increase the employability of these youths and subsequently facilitate their chances of securing jobs in industries. This will in turn go a long way in reducing the severity of youth unemployment in the country. Above all, some of the trained manpower could be exported for the benefits outlined as accruing from labour export.
Conclusion and Recommendations
This study has shown that in the oil and gas sector and by extension other sectors and industries, Nigeria is losing countless employment opportunities to expatriates; the very opportunities Nigerian youths would have taken up and by so doing reduce the acute youth unemployment currently facing the country. Unfortunately, these expatriates are qualified for the jobs they take up, due to specialized technical and vocational (TVE) skills which they possess. For Nigerian youths, whereas there is very high aspirations among them to acquire higher academic qualifications, many of them do not seem to be aware of the technical and vocational competencies/ certifications and even soft skills required in order to gain employment in some of Nigeria's industries. But for their foreign counterparts, whereas they may not have higher academic degrees, however, they undergo series of skill development in specialized training/educational institutions which certify them on the industry required competencies, thereby giving them the edge when it comes to securing jobs even in a country where they are non-nationals.
As a way forward to promote employability and reduce unemployment among youths in Nigeria, the following recommendations are therefore made:
• There is a strong need to determine the skill gaps in different industries in Nigeria in order to direct youths and training institutions to areas of manpower needs in the country. Thus, targeted skills development program can be initiated to address the required skill needs in specific sectors.
The Nigerian government must make concerted efforts to invest more in the Basic level of education and also strongly pursue the revitalization of TVE in the country, paying particular attention to content, current societal changes and technological adaptability. And of course, teachers/trainers development will also be a great factor in supporting this move. There is need for strong institutional development for many professional training. The Nigerian Society of Engineers, National Association of Engineering Technicians and Craftsmen, National Association of Technologist in Engineering etc., all have a part to play in evolving specialized institutions and subsequent certification of the lower and middle level technical practice so as to compete globally with their foreign counterparts. Where it is not immediately tenable to stand alone, these professional institutions can seek affiliation with relevant global training bodies.
Individuals and private corporate bodies can explore this novel business opportunity in partnering with training institutions abroad who have the technical expertise and license to empower Nigerian youths in different specializes skills and vocations. Training and manpower development stakeholders can take advantage of recent technological development to package global training content through e-learning platforms, where it is not possible to deliver such trainings physically.
There is also need for the orientation of youths to get them to be more aware of the economic realities of placing value on technical and vocational skills, so that they can appreciate the need to integrate their academic power with skills that will enhance their employability early in life.
Lastly, career guidance and counselling structure for youths in Nigerian schools needs to be modified to reflect modern work realities, so as to have them properly guided with regards to available job opportunities and what it takes to secure them.
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