A TIME WHEN YOUR CERTIFICATE WILL BE OF NO VALUE

It’s only what you learn after you know it all that counts – Harry Truman.

I was ruminating on what to write when a thought flashed through my mind and I had to drop the topic I had initially worked on. Then in the early hours of Sunday, I overheard a 400L student of UI discussing what will be his fate in the labour market and then, I remembered one of my lecturers word: “your certificate can only earn you a place out there but it can never sustain you.”

imagesSometimes I wonder what will be the fate of some students in the University of Ibadan nay Faculty of Arts, knowing that the Nigerian market has no place for them, at least not yet. I cannot help but pity some students living the triangular lifestyle (hostel to lecture room, lecture room to the place of worship and back to the hostel). Personally, I think most students in this Faculty are just too academically inclined; their goal is to make a first class instead of the first class making them. The educational system in Nigeria rewards the “la cram –la pour”. Thus, students forget that it’s your intellect and skills that will help you survive out there. They forget that once upon a time, the name “University of Ibadan” alone could secure a job, so some are still wallowing in that wanton reverie. The ‘’la cram- la pour’’ method that makes you revered in the comity of friends and lecturers would become useless in the labour market.

Although, to come out with a first class is not a crime but companies are looking out for that unique skill that will stand you out which cannot be learnt within the four walls of a classroom. This was the skill eminent personalities like   Mark Zukerberg, owner of Facebook possessed even though he studied psychology at Harvard; the skill Bill Gate possessed that kept him going even as a drop out in school and still did what a  computer scientist could not have done. Now back home , this was the skill Dangote possessed before pursuing it formally at Al-Azahar  University, Egypt and today he is the richest man in Africa; the skill that Linda Ikeji, the queen of blogging as she is fondly called, possessed that she started her fashion & modeling outfit even when her course was not related to such.

Education is a means to an end and not an end in itself. In fact, one of the aims of higher education is to develop that intellectual capacity that one already possesses which will make him/ her understand and appreciate his environment. There comes a time when the first class or second class certificate will fail you and you will need to rely on the already refined skill or intellect to sustain and keep you on the job. It may interest you to know that with the limited market demand now, even your course of study may not offer your dream job instead it is your intellect. Your four years in the ivory tower hence becomes as useless as that of Volkswagen beetle car. Thus acting as a plus to those who just had to accept any course they were given in order to secure admission.

In conclusion, pursue that educational requirement that will secure you a place in the labour market as well as pursue that skill and intellect that is peculiar to you and that you are formidable in. Do not be the product of only brilliance but be uniquely intelligent so that, at the end, you will exploit the labour market without being exploited by it.                  

 

ALTITUDE

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