Vice-Chancellor of Kwara State University, KWASU, Malete, Professor Muhammed Mustapha Akanbi has come out to say that it is senseless for Nigerian Universities to graduate first class students without job enabling skills.

He revealed this just after a recent statement by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, that about 21.7 million Nigerians are unemployed.

According to him, Kwara State University is a university of community development and entrepreneurship and he likes the fact that its graduates are always equipped vocational, technical and entrepreneurship skills.

He added that our Universities should learn to engage in things like making face masks, face shields, hand sanitizers, tailoring carpentry and so on, to keep themselves occupied before securing a job.

His words, “Our university is a university of community development and entrepreneurship. I like the fact that you appreciate what we are doing with entrepreneurship; that centre is being rejigged and rejuvenated.

“It is now called the centre for vocational, technical and entrepreneurship because we don’t want to teach entrepreneurship just in theory. We get our students involved in vocational things and technical aspects.

“Already, we encourage our students to engage in different entrepreneurial skills, acquire, hold and consider all certificates important. It does not make any sense if you are a first-class student and you are looking for a job. And I mean First class in any programme.”

“You will see students engage in things like making face masks, face shields, hand sanitizers, some are into tailoring, some are into carpentry, some are into what I call mechanical automobile repair and things like that.

“And in the past, the CAC has given awards to our students because we are talking of every year almost 2,000 students registering with the CAC because when you come in, it is expected that it is not going to be only a classroom thing.”