SUPPLY OF SKILLS IN PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES AS A CORRELATE OF SKILLS DEMANDED BY EMPLOYERS IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA
Keywords:
Supply of Skills, Skills demanded for, Employers of labour, Analytical skill, creative skill, collaborative skill, communication skillAbstract
Skills supply in various institutions of learning has become source of
concern to employers in Nigeria. There have been complaints of
inadequacy of required skills by employers which hinders the growth of
organisation and threaten economic development of nations. Relating
skills supplied in private universities with skills demanded by employers
among private universities graduates form the basis for the study.
Survey research design of ex-post facto type was adopted while
Multistage sampling procedure was used. Purposive sampling technique
was used to sample 10 (60%) private universities that have graduated
students for minimum of eight years in Southwestern Nigeria. Also, 55
(70%) faculties were randomly selected while all the 173 Head of
Departments (HoDs) in the sampled faculties were used, while 173
Human Resource Managers (HRMs) of organisations in Communication,
Banking, Education, Health, Judiciary, Manufacturing/Construction and
Agriculture sectors were sampled to determine skills demanded by
employers. Instruments used were QSSRFPU (r = 0.81) and SDEAPUG (r =
0.89). Results revealed that demand for analytical (3.43); creative (3.18)
and collaborative (3.16) skills were higher than supply (2.89, 2.93 and
2.90) respectively, while communication skill was the equilibrium point
where demand was equal to supply (3.5 = 3.5). There was significant
difference in skills demanded by employers in different sectors of the
economy (t = 2.392; df = 171; P < 0.05), while there was no significant
difference in skills supplied by private universities (t = 2.392; df = 171; P
> 0.05). It was concluded that the level of skills demanded was higher
than supply. Based on the findings, it was recommended that
management of private universities should improve on the skills
supplied to labour market through their graduates. There should be feedback from employers to universities on the new trend of needs in
labour market.
