Public-private Partnership: An Emerging Need for Sustainable Technical and Vocational Education Training in Nigeria
Author: Oyekola, Oluwakemi Olaronke & Ogunsuji, Olabode James Nigeria
Abstract: In attaining the desired level of economic growth and development, human capital development via skills acquisition and vocational training has been identified as one of the major factors that can propel economic growth. The employment of an economically active labor force has been taunted by non-availability/mismatched of skilled labor as required in the employment industry and succinctly contributed to the unemployment rate in many African nations. Bridging the gap between the education and employment world remains a focal point and thus Technical, Vocational Education Training (TVET), has been identified to meet this need. TVET in Nigeria and many other African nations seem to be unworkable owing to challenges impeding its success. Therefore, this paper examines TVET in Nigeria and pubic private partnership as a need for actualizing TVET goals. In a bid to establish the necessity and urgent need for a public-private partnership in order to enhance TVET in Nigeria, an analysis of the effect of unemployment on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was carried out on the data gathered from African and Asia countries using an Ordinary Least Square (OLS) Regression Analysis. Findings revealed that unemployment has a negative effect on the GDP of African nations. The result also showed that the GDP in Asian countries, consequent to their collaborations with private sectors, is higher than in African. This study, among other things, therefore recommends a sustainable collaboration with the private sector towards achieving economic growth and development as well as rapid industrialization in Nigeria and other African economies.