From classroom to crisis: Interrogating stakeholders on the correlation between skill mismatch, unemployability, and increasing unemployment in Nigeria

Abstract

Pervasive skill mismatch, unemployability, and increased unemployment trends have grown in Nigeria, driven by a disconnect between graduate skills and employer expectations, due to the lack of robust partnerships between academia and labour market, leading to misaligned educational curricula with industrial needs. The objective of this study was to determine the relationships between curricula misalignment, skill mismatch, unemployability, and unemployment, with a special emphasis on how the relationships between these factors went a long way in escalating the nation’s labour market crisis. A quantitative correlational survey design was adopted, which utilize stratified random sampling from which 300 participants were selected from recent graduates, employers, academicians and policymakers. The study employed descriptive statistics, factor analysis and hypothesis testing to examine the effect of curricula misalignment on unemployment trends using direct and mediating variables. It was found that curricula misalignment highly correlate with skill mismatch (????=0.482, β=0.482), and that skill mismatch was positively correlated with unemployment trends (????=0.389, β=0.389), and that unemployability mediated the curricula misalignment to unemployment (????=0.312, β=0.312). These findings reinforce the gravity of the repercussions of the systemic educational deficiencies and their alteration of labour market efficiency in urgent need of reforms that will incorporate practical skill development, improve soft skills training and fuel academia industry collaboration. The study further concludes that the industry-academia collaboration cannot be over emphasized because it will give graduates the capability of workforce readiness, reduce unemployment, and also support sustainable economic growth in Nigeria.