Go for skills, certificates no longer guarantee jobs, JAMB boss, Oloyede tells students

The Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Oloyede, has advised Nigerian students to seek to gain demonstrable skills in addition to their education as university degrees and certificates will no longer be a guarantee to securing jobs.

Oloyede who gave the advice on Thursday during the convocation ceremony at the Kwara State University, Malete, said by acquiring skills beyond the classroom, Nigerian students will stand a better chance of creating employment for themselves.

While delivering the convocation lecture, titled “Learning, Unlearning, and Relearning -Prerequisites of the Digital Age,” Oloyede said the imperative of the triad in life cannot be overemphasized as the tonic that gives vitality to successful living in today’s information age.

“New opportunities will emerge in the high-tech sector, and many skills that were not otherwise taught in conventional schools would be needed. Degrees would no longer be the sole guarantee of jobs, but demonstrable skills would,” he emphasized.

“In this regard, there won’t be meaningful difference between the literates and the illiterates without the cutting-edge skills that are associated with the triad – learning, unlearning, and relearning.”

Explaining further, the JAMB registrar said:

“Those who can learn, unlearn, and relearn are the successful ones, and those without the mindset that accommodates the triad are bound to perpetually lament.

“The world of today is different from the stone age; one of the factors responsible for this change is the totality of what makes the information age, which is still evolving as technology develops rapidly.

“The dynamism of the world provides new opportunities and threats. While there are new opportunities in information technology, the existing jobs as typists, receptionists, traditional printers, telephone booth operators, computer operators, factory workers, cashiers, travel agents, and fuel attendants, among others, are on the verge of extinction.

“The onus of responsibility lies on everyone to get prepared for the challenges of the information age by taking lifelong learning seriously and being willing to change as the circumstances unfold,” he said.

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