The Rector of Crown Maritime Academy, Mr. Martins Okechukwu has advised youths to engage in result-oriented and practical studies in solving issues as a way of tackling the high rate of unemployment in the country.
He said this at the recent convocation ceremony organised for the graduating students of the academy in Lagos, recently.
In his welcome address, the Rector said that vocational education was a way to gainful employment through acquisition of skills adding that individuals could become self-employed through the skills acquired. He said, “There is no better security for our future happiness than self employment, creating employment for others in the society.
The major problem in many developing nations like Nigeria today is the inability of the economy to absorb the teeming number of graduates from the university and other tertiary institutions thereby necessitating the need for a practical and result oriented approach to address unemployment across the country in order to avert any disastrous consequence.”
The Rector stated that the number of graduates was not supposed to be higher than the number of jobs available in the country. Speaking further, he attributed the rate of poverty in the country to the higher number of graduates than available jobs.
However, fifteen students were certified with the award of Higher National Diploma in Administration and Maritime concerns from four existing departments.
Also speaking at the event, the Deputy Rector, Mr. Adebayo Kazeem, expressed the need for the outgoing students to put in practice what they learnt in school by engaging themselves in entrepreneurial activities so as to avert facing the problem of unemployment in the country.
Alhaji Abdullahi, in his keynote address said, the problem in most of private of maritime training institutions in Nigeria is due to the disconnect between the private institution owners and Federal government. He however said some of the institutions lacked qualified lecturers, inadequate of training centres and lack of basic infrastructure.
