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The Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, has commenced the conduct of a National Employability Benchmarking Programme in Nigerian universities in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation, IFC, and other local partners.
Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc Sonny Echono, said the move is part of efforts to improve employability in the country and help steer higher education institutions towards better alignment with market needs.
Echono, who spoke at the National Employability Benchmarking Programme in Abuja , said
IFC is utilizing its Vitae employability tool to provide a diagnostic macro snapshot of how well tertiary institutions in Nigeria are implementing employability best-practices.
According to him, they will also measure how tertiary institutions are establishing a baseline for employability, and potentially supporting the development of a strategic approach to sector intervention.
“IFC Vitae is a global first-of-a-kind, survey-based, diagnostic instrument which assesses, processes, structures and supports employability outcomes for higher education institutions.
“The program provides system and institutional-level insights that helps identify key intervention areas that will enhance the employability ecosystem and improve graduate employability outcomes,” he said.
The TETFund boss further noted that “One of the key roles of TETFund is to develop an enabling system for young graduates to be part of the active labour market soon after graduation.
“This diagnostic led by the IFC is the first phase of designing an intervention to improve graduate employability outcomes. The program will help improve where higher education institutions in the country are presently in relation to global best practices.”
“The first stage of the programme was to develop a snapshot of current employability practices, specifically to understand how the current regulatory policy framework may act as an enabler or barrier to succes