Nigerian graduates don’t read –Aigbona

Mr. Kingsley Aigbona is a writer and Chief Executive Officer, Learning Edge. He speaks about the need for graduates to read beyond their areas of specialisation in this interview with IFE ADEDAPO

How far can education go in improving a person’s chances of securing a job?

I have seen people who have Ordinary National Diploma who are sharper than people with master’s degree. I agree that having extra education will help in getting a better job. But what I will say is that anybody who goes out there to acquire education whether it is a master’s degree or any other should go beyond what they have studied. They should not just read books given to them in the classroom, and pass their exams and believe anybody will employ them.

Organisations are now looking for competencies that are beyond what is taught in the classroom. There is a documentary that shows that what people learn in year one will become irrelevant by the time they get to year three. It means if people depend on their course outline only or what they have learnt in the classroom to execute their jobs, there is no way they can fit in. Continue..

The average Nigerian graduate does not read. They only read what they are taught, pour it on paper during examinations and that is all. I have interviewed a lot of them and when I ask them what is the title of the last book you read, they will tell me “how to chase witchcraft, how to fight the demons.”

They only read spiritual books, they don’t read books that will develop them, that is the shortcoming of Nigerian graduates, they don’t read, they don’t research. Once they have their certificates, they believe they have arrived. That alone will not get them a job, because I know the kind of people companies are looking for.

What kind of books do you recommend for graduates?

The books should be industry-specific depending on their area of specialisation. Generally speaking, people should go for books that will develop their communication skills, time management skills including their soft skills. They should read books by some American authors who have mentored some other Americans in their top workforce. They should subscribe to magazines from Havard business review, which will show them current things in the business world.

This will now compel them to go online. If they can’t afford to buy such books, they should go online. There is nobody who cannot afford an Internet connection. They should also spend their Internet time on developing themselves with so much information for them.

They should search on Google by typing, “how to become a better communicator, how to become a better person, how to prepare for job interviews.” They will get so much to read. Every graduate should have a library, not just of school books but of current books. One of the last books by Jack Welsh should be read by every graduate because he talked about how they managed people in General Electric, how he interacted with top-performing people in his organisation and the challenges the company went through. If they don’t read such books, they won’t understand what is happening in some organisations. They feel they just need to present themselves on the first day of resumption, and on the last day of the month, they collect their salaries. They need to learn about business and how it is run.

What are the specific skills organisations look out for among graduates?

One of them is problem-solving skills. When people go for aptitude tests, there are some questions asked that are aimed at identifying analytical skills in them. How are they able to analyse a situation and come up with an informed and brilliant solution? How well are they able to pass information or ideas across to the other party? Employers are also watching out for their ability to organise themselves. How well can they perform under pressure? These are some of the things companies are looking for. Leadership skills, ability to influence people around you, your time management skills and I think the most important one is the problem-solving skills. Everybody is in business to solve problems. They will be able to help that organisation to solve problem for the clients and the more problem is solved, the more money is made by the organisation.

Does having these skills without the necessary work experience make a candidate eligible for a job?

Graduates need a job to get the experience and without the job, they cannot get the experience. What they should do is that when they are in school, they should study materials that relate to management outside their course of study. While doing that, they should pick up jobs here and there.

Every graduate should look for how to learn and the process as this will serve as work experience for them. They can walk into a company and tell them, ‘I want to sell for you.’ They should give themselves a target without requesting salary but only commission. They will be amazed at the responses they will get. If they can walk up to five or six companies like that, they can’t be rejected. Why? Every company wants to sell. Everybody has the ability to sell because everyone has relationships; even the most introverted individual has friends. If you can talk and have eyesight and you understand what it is you are selling, then you can. Anybody who does not know how to sell should learn.

There are concerns over lack of career growth by some employees despite their perceived excellent performance, what could be responsible for this?

If some employees believe that they are performing well but are not promoted, it could be because they are actually not performing. The fact is that performance cannot be defined by the employee but by the employer. If the employer says do 10 things per day and the employee was only able to do eight things, to the employee, he has tried, but the person did not perform. If you look at the meaning of the word perform, during the Olympics, if 10 people are asked to run the race, and only one wins the race, it means that the remaining nine have not performed. Performance is defined by the employer. There are organisations where people perform and they are not promoted. It depends on many factors. One of such factors is when there is no opening for the person to be promoted. And some organisations where there is much room at the top management positions and people are not being promoted, it depends on the cost implication as a result of increase in salary.

There are some instances when people entitled to promotion were not given at the right time but were given double promotion later.

When regular staff are outsourced, does it affect their pay or benefits?

Many times when a company says that they are now ready to outsource their human resources, they have two things in mind, they want to save costs and they want to get stress off their shoulder. This is because it takes so much stress to manage them. Although they will have supervisors within the company but as much as possible, you want to lose ownership of some of the staff, it might not be the entire staff. The company needs to have a robust HR department to be able to manage 5000 people. Paying them salary is a lot of work and many companies don’t want to be involved anymore. Basically we have some outsourcing contract in which the salary of the staff did not reduce, the client wanted to be focused and did not want to be involved in the management of the people based on certain factors.