VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION AS A VERITABLE TOOL FOR DEVELOPING THE YOUTHS FOR GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT AND SELF-RELIANCE

Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa and the eighth in the world with a population of over 140 million people (National Population Commission, 2006). Nigeria is the eighth largest oil producing country in the world, but it has the largest population of poor and unemployed people in sub-Saharan Africa and is ranked 158th on the human development index. There is  high-income inequality, which has perpetuated the concentration of wealth of the nation in the hands of a few individuals (Action Aid Nigeria, 2009). With a nominal GDP of $207.11 billion and per capita income of $1,401 it has the second largest economy in Africa. As remarkable as the above figures may seem youth unemployment has been one of the major problems facing the country. A high level of unemployment and underemployment is one of the critical socio-economic problems facing Nigeria (Salami, 2011). While the labor force grows, with an increasing proportion of youth, employment growth is insufficient to absorb labor market entrants. As a result, the youth are specifically affected by unemployment. Moreover, the youth are more likely to be employed in jobs of low quality, underemployed, working long hours for low wages, engaged in dangerous work or receive only short term and/or informal employment arrangements. The inadequate employment situation of the youth has a number of socioeconomic, political and moral consequences. This has given rise to high level of poverty in Nigeria. The share of the total population living below the $1 a day on the threshold of 46 per cent is higher today than in the 1980s and 1990s, despite significant improvements in the growth of GDP in recent years (Aiyedogbon & Ohwofasa, 2012). In most developing countries like Nigeria, governments and policy makers are increasingly finding it difficult to deal successfully with the problem of youth unemployment. This high level of unemployment can be attributed to lack of adequate provision for job creation in the development plans, the ever expanding educational growth and the desperate desire on the part of youth to acquire university education irrespective of the course. As a result, a number of skills acquired from the university appear dysfunctional and irrelevant (Okafor, 2011).Social Development revealed that of the over 40 million unemployed youths in the country, 23 million are unemployable and therefore susceptible to crime, hence the need to articulate what could be done to salvage the situation (Emeh, Nwanguma, &Abaroh, 2012).