Unemployment is a major concern in Nigeria as recent reports revealed that its rate increased from 13.3% to 13.9% in 2016, according to NBS (National Bureau of Statistics).

The unemployed Nigerian population are those who are actively looking for work, but could either not find work, absolutely nothing at all for at least 20 hours, or did something but not for up to 20 hours in a week. Unemployment is a state of joblessness, that is, the lack or denial of jobs to able-bodied persons who are fit, qualified and willing to work.

It is pertinent to note that there is a clear difference between being unemployed and being unemployable. You don’t necessarily have to be a university or college graduate to be unemployed, implying that an illiterate but skilful person (e.g a carpenter or bricklayer) may be considered as an unemployed person if he/she is denied the opportunity to put his/her acquired skills to practice.

A graduate can not be considered unemployed if he/she is unemployable i.e he/she is not qualified to handle the tasks that his/her certification says such a person has been trained and is qualified to handle. A person could also be considered as unemployable if he/she is qualified and willing to work but isn’t able-bodied (i.e physically and mentally unfit). Flawed teacher training and inadequate school curriculum has detrimental effect on the country’s education sector as institutions fails woefully in their primary task of providing adequately trained and employable graduates.

Internship is an “earn-as-you-learn” program that provides undergraduates with the opportunity to earn a salary or incentive as they get trained on-the-job. It is a win-win situation because the students do not only get a more practical learning experience with minimal pay, the employers gets to fill their middle-skills job openings with interns who are willing to get tasks done in real time and increase productivity at a lesser cost. Internship is the foundation on which a student’s career is laid.

www.placements.com.ng is a start-up looking to solve or reduce unemployment in Nigeria by ensuring provision of qualified, willing and rightly skilled manpower to recruiting companies and firms. This will in turn improve productivity level as these interns are well-skilled, eager to learn on the job and showcase their best abilities and prove that they are good at what they do to seal their place in the labour market.

www.placements.com.ng has developed a world-class web application to ensure that employers are able to recruit intelligent undergraduate interns seamlessly & each prospective intern lands on his/her desired attachment at the click of a button. Interns are otherwise advised to take their jobs to heart as their performance records would serve to secure their places in the labour market as they may later be employed by the same companies after graduation.

www.placements.com.ng is simply a ground-breaker offering simple solutions to difficult problem (employment) by connecting job seekers or interns and employers the easiest way possible. The tech start-up serves as the intermediary between the interns and employers, makes HR firms’ job less tasking and also ensure that the interns are getting standard training required to make them employable. They provide equal opportunities of employment for disadvantaged students and give them a feel of what the labour force will be like.

According to Emmanuel Ogunsola (Head of production at Techpoint.ng), “disrupting how we learn might be the fastest and maybe cost effective way to reduce unemployment in Nigeria.” A drastic increase in employment rate will result to an overall increase in industrial productivity level which will in turn boost the country’s economy.

Credit : Salam, Abimbola F