Many Nigerian graduates with degrees are leaving school unemployable because they lack practical skills and only possess academic certificates that do not translate into real work competence, according to the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education, Prof. Idris Muhammad Bugaje.
Bugaje made this statement while responding to questions on the Nigerian Skills Qualifications Framework, NSQF, during a live radio interview on Correct FM, where he spoke extensively on the disconnect between academic qualifications and employability in Nigeria.
According to him, the country’s education system has focused too heavily on certificates while neglecting skills, leaving many degree holders without the competencies required by employers.
“But NSQ is actually supposed to complement. We are supposed to train even the degree holders to apply skills,” Bugaje said.
He stated that possessing a university degree without hands-on skills offers little value in today’s labour market, arguing that employers are more interested in what graduates can do than the certificates they present.
“Because if you have a skill and you don’t have a degree, you can get a job today anywhere. But if you come with a degree without skills, nobody will employ you. Nobody will be interested in you. You are just carrying a paper around. You will not get any job,” he said.
Bugaje explained that the popular phrase “skills, not degrees” was not intended to dismiss education but to redirect attention to the importance of practical competence alongside academic learning.
He said the goal of the NSQF is to ensure that both skilled workers and degree holders are assessed based on what they can practically demonstrate, rather than relying solely on classroom-based qualifications.
The NBTE executive secretary stressed that Nigeria must move towards what he described as functional education, noting that the absence of skills training has contributed to rising graduate unemployment across the country.
“We are supposed to produce what we call functional education,” Bugaje said.
He explained further that functional education is defined by two critical elements.
“What makes education functional? Skills and entrepreneurship. These are the two items that make an educational system functional,” he said.
According to him, graduates who acquire practical skills alongside their academic studies are less likely to remain unemployed, as they can either secure jobs or create their own sources of income.
“Skills because when they come out they will not start roaming around looking for a job. They can set up on their own,” Bugaje added.
He said the NBTE has introduced measures to integrate skills certification into tertiary education, including making skills qualifications mandatory for diploma graduates under the Mandatory Skills Qualification, MSQ.
Bugaje expressed hope that similar requirements would be adopted across universities to ensure that graduates leave school with both theoretical knowledge and practical abilities.
He noted that industries continue to complain about the lack of employable graduates despite the growing number of degree holders produced annually.
According to him, aligning education with practical skills through the NSQF would help bridge the gap between schools and the labour market, improve graduate employability, and restore confidence in Nigeria’s education outcomes.
