The unemployed and the employable applicant: A chasm between the academics and the industry

Sometime ago I worked with a corporate organization and there was a need to recruit more hands in my unit so the application process was opened up to the public. We had several applications pouring in, day in and out; short listings were done and interviews were carried out but yet we could not find suitable applicants for the jobs as weeks went by, even months! Then I came to a conclusion that it is paradoxical that in a country where we have high level of unemployment, employers still find it difficult getting suitable hands to fill up skilled labour vacancies.

Coming home to the software industry, take a search through most job listing sites in the country, you will find a large number of unfilled vacancies for software developers; yet we have a large number of computer science graduates unemployed. This point has buttressed by the case of a female computer science graduate that carried a placard on Lekki expressway soliciting for jobs. The most alarming part of this scenario is that such job adverts run for months - meaning the company is finding it difficult getting suitable hands for the jobs thereby incurring more cost on their recruitment process.

Where lies the problem, and what are the solutions? It is unarguably true that there is a chasm between the tertiary institutions’ curriculum and the industry’s needs. While everybody believes the university community is to groom the youths for the job market; yet its curriculum is more theoretical than it can be applied immediately to solve real life challenges. And, that is where the industry generates their revenue: from solving real life problems. The industry is a highly demanding environment where newly recruits should hit the ground and run, they want youths that will from the first day start solving real life problems. The fair truth is that the tertiary institutions have done their own bits; the focus of the university/polytechnic is to churn out youths that are well refined for the society: vast in different subjects’ areas. Its curriculum usually digresses into subjects which are not primarily focused at solving a particular industry’s need.

How do we bridge this gap? At Moat Academy we have come as an intermediate in bridging this consequential chasm so that the unemployed can be armed with skills that can solve real life problems thus making them fits for the industry’s need. Our approach is more of an apprenticeship where you learn software developments from experts in the field and it is 100% practical and job-oriented.

Our curriculum have been designed in a way to fit in the missing link between the university and the industry so that our graduands can hit the ground from day one and run in any software company in the world; making them highly demanded professionals by employers.

Registration is now opened for our next batch, please visit www.moatacademy.com to register.