Government Policies: Policies are series of steps taken by a government
to solve problems, make decisions, allocate resources or values,
implement policies and in general to do the things expected of them by
their constituencies (Aminu, Tella & Mbaya, 2012). Government
policies on employment are made to promote the goal of decent and
productive employment as a national priority and enable all participants
in the labour force to gain productive and full employment (Evoh &
Agu, 2016). Mbah and Agu (2013) put it that Successive governments in
Nigeria had adopted various policies to create jobs and reduce
unemployment. These employment policies were pivoted around small and
medium scale enterprises (SMEs) as veritable instruments to impact
skills and provide financial assistance to the unemployed persons. One
of the policies of government was NEEDS. Adebayo and Ogunrinola (2006)
pointed out that for NEEDS to achieve its objectives there is need to
design many integrated programmes that can generate employment for women
and youths to enhance growth and development. In combating unemployment
problem, this further point out the need to seek help in the informal
sector in order to drastically reduces unemployment.
The effective
government labour policies instruments targeted at graduate unemployment
in National Directorate of Employment (NDE) scheme include the Start
Your Own Business (SYOB) under the Small Scale Enterprise programme
(SSE), the sensitization of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) on
Entrepreneurship development, the Graduate Attachment Programme (GAP)
and the Solar Energy Training Scheme (SETS) which was recently
introduced. However, the study will estimate the government labour
policy with the total number of persons that benefited from NDE graduate
programmes annually (Anyawu, 2014).
Therefore, government policies
affect employability as Anyawu (2014) put it that employment will only
increase when Gross Domestic Product is increasing faster than
productivity, On the other hand, the greater the amount of goods and
services produced, the greater the labour required for production;
because economic growth and employment go hand in hand.
Academic Qualifications: In line with European Parliament and Council of the European Union (2008), qualification is a final result of an assessment and validation system that is obtained when a competent body determines that an individual has achieved learning outcomes to a given standard. Also, qualifications are providers of information and value (currencies) notably influencing the manner people and education or training as well as labour market institutions interact with each other (Cedecop, 2009). A qualification is expressed in a formal record (certificate, degree, diploma or award) which is based on norms and specifications applying to the following elements of qualifications;
(a) occupation standards may specify the primary jobs that people do, describing the expert obligations and activities in addition to the competences typical of a career. Occupation standards answer the question ‘what do the students need to be able to do in employment?’
(b) education standards may outline the expected outcomes of the learning process, leading to the award of a qualification, the study programme in terms of content, learning targets and timetable as well as teaching strategy and learning settings, such as in-company or school-based learning. Educational standards answer the question ‘what the student needs to learn to be effective in employment?’
(c) assessment standards may specify the items of evaluation, performance standard, assessment methods and the composition of the activity entitled to award the qualification. Assessment standards answer the question ‘how you know what the student has learned and is able to do in employment?’ (Mansfield, 2001: 11).
The term qualification helps to clarify what may be taken into consideration as the following:
(a) learning outcomes; a qualification should make clear what the holder is predicated to know, be able to do and understand. A qualification’s relevance to future recipients depends on its capacity to signal learning outcomes clearly.
(b) assessment and validation process; a qualification must be based on reliable and valid assessment procedures which are able to capture the essence of the knowledge, skills and competences held by an individual learner:
(c) need for standards: standards are critical to qualifications as they define what a learner is predicated to know, be able to or recognise. Requirements may be visible as the reference point around which the entire qualification process turns. Standards are also essential for relevance of the qualification to future users (for example, in labour market) as they define the level and profile to be achieved.
(d) recognition process: a qualification is a ‘paper of value’ and its currency depends on a formal stamp of approval or recognition. Recognition can be seen as the final step in the qualification process confirming that the process has been appropriately carried out and that the qualification can be trusted (Cedecop, 2009: 9).
The qualification permits its holder to prove competences, skills and experience it offers the recipients, the employer, a trusted basis on which to judge the qualified person’s labour market value. This means that a qualification is not visible as characteristic of a person in the sense of competence but is seen as the tangible outcome of a process. In this sense, qualification represents a kind of currency accepted with what has been called a ‘zone mutual trust’. Qualification standards are powerful coordination mechanism for improving the match between demand and provision of education, training and learning (Cedecop, 2009). Qualifications are situated at the interface between the worlds of work and education. They are awarded as a result of a learning process to be used on labour market. Accordingly, the award of a qualification can be totally based on regulation of the learning process or on labour market requirement.
