Employability is a famous term among employers, academics, researchers, and other stakeholders. Employability skills for Nigerians refers to the knowledge, skills, and talents required to find work and advance in a vocation. Nigerian graduates have faced difficulties due to not having the right skills to fulfil contemporary labour market requirements.
They have consistently failed to develop the employability skills for Nigerians required for success in the workplace. Skills for employability can either be hard or soft skills. In this article, we will discuss the hard and soft employability skills that rank high in the skills for employability in Nigeria. Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
Hard Employability Skills for Nigerians
Let’s start with a look at some of the most sought-after hard skills. To excel in a particular position, these are the skills you’ll need.
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Digital skills
With the advent of the internet, digital skills are one of the primary employability skills for Nigerians. This is important because most brands have gone digital to keep up with their competition and increase income. Hence, it becomes one of the essential skills for employability. Examples of digital skills include:
- Digital marketing
- Content creation
- Product management
- Data analysis
- Graphics designing
- Web design, etc.
Imagine calling yourself a marketer without having digital marketing skills in this contemporary world. Or you’re an accountant who has no data analysis skills nor can use the data analysis software. You’ll agree that the efficiency of such persons would be below average. It would be a case of a farmer going to farm without any farming tools.
Read also: Top 10 sites to learn digital skills as a Nigerian.
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Technical skills
Technical skills mean the ability to use and achieve experience in completing physical or digital activities. It is one of the best employability skills for Nigerians because many growing companies need technical professionals. For example, an individual who wants to work as a banker must know how to use most banking software.
Knowledge of several coding languages is a technical ability for programmers and developers. As a customer service agent, you may need to know how to operate phone systems and handle customers. Technical skills may take various forms depending on the industry you find yourself in. Some examples of technical skills include:
- Software proficiency
- Technical writing
- Project management
- Data analysis
- Programming languages
- Common operating systems
Practically every employment relies on various tools, programs, and procedures, which shows how critical technical skills are.
For technical and digital skill acquisition, keep an eye on side hustle internship for Nigerian students and graduates. It’s a good place to start.
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Vocational skills
Vocational skills, also known as entrepreneurial skills, are the next employability skills for Nigerians. It is simply the skill and occupation you gain to become a professional in a specific trade or profession. It would interest you to know that most successful business owners and entrepreneurs in Nigeria began by getting a vocational skill or training.
With the high unemployment rate, acquiring one or two vocational skills for employability in Nigeria will make you relevant. Examples include:
- Fashion designing
- Make-up artistry
- Event planning
- arts and craft
- Electrical Repairs
- Home Cleaning, etc.
Read also: Best vocational skills to learn in Nigeria
Soft Employability Skills for Nigerians
Today, soft employability skills for Nigerians are the most in-demand skills in the labour market to get and keep a job. Employers place far more emphasis on them. Some of the skills include:
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Communication skills
The first soft employability skill for Nigerians is communication. The capacity to effectively and efficiently communicate with another person is something that every company looks for in its employees. If you’re a Nigerian graduate looking for a career, you’ll need to be concise and clear, as well as able to adjust your message to the specific audience.
Read also: A guide to effective communication for Nigerian students
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Leadership skills
Good leaders are in high demand because of the various ways they can assist an organization. An important role of a leader is to ensure that all organization members work together as a cohesive unit to achieve a shared goal. Furthermore, you may have to devise plans for reaching goals, motivating your employees, and keeping tabs on their job output to improve the bottom line for your business.
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Analytical skills
Employees who can think logically and creatively are in high demand. Employers continually look for people who can identify problems and generate ideas to resolve issues. As a Nigerian graduate looking for employment, your potential employer will be looking for evidence that you have the analytical skills. They need to ensure that you can work through challenging situations and make sound judgments based on the provided data. This makes it one of the essential skills for employability to possess.
Insight holds an annual free webinar that revolves around acquiring sustainable skills. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and be among the first to know.
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Excellent teamwork skills
Excellent teamwork skills mean working well with others to attain a common objective. Because you may assist a firm in achieving its goals more successfully, teamwork abilities such as delegation can help you land a job. You can improve workplace morale with these abilities. As a team player, you must work well with others, accept responsibility for your job, and contribute to the group’s overall success.
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Presentation skills
Successful business people in Nigeria today can articulate their ideas clearly and concisely. They can also maintain a professional approach and persuade others. People are less likely to read extensive materials because of the effort it takes. If you want to be productive in your place of work, strong presenting abilities and verbal communication are the most effective means of conveying ideas.
Read also: A guide to effective presentation in different scenarios
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Critical thinking skills
Thinking critically is one of the essential employability skills for Nigerians. Critical thinking means deducing and making conclusions from data you have gathered, analyzed, and interpreted. Regardless of one’s occupation, one must appraise circumstances and develop solutions. Reasoning skills are essential for employees in the workplace.
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Self-management skills
Self-management simply means the ability to carry out your responsibilities with minimal supervision. Additionally, it entails distributing responsibilities to meet deadlines for those in positions of greater authority. The ability for workers to self-manage their productivity is another benefit of self-managed companies. This is why you need to have these skills for employability in your arsenal.
Conclusion
It’s important to remember that these employability skills for Nigerians are essential and that employers increasingly place a high value on these hard and soft skills. However, many skills can be valuable to companies. Since everyone has a unique set of skills, any organization may benefit from the contributions of anyone. People who don’t develop and practice these soft skills are increasingly at risk of being ignored, which makes developing the ability to identify and utilize your skills.
Would you like to develop some of these skills? Join insight’s WhatsApp community. You’ll have first-hand access to information on upcoming webinars that cover some of these skills.
About Author
- My name is Rachael Philip, an undergraduate at Lagos state polytechnic. I'm a Multi-niched content writer and podcast enthusiast who is result-oriented with enthusiasm to learn new things in my field and other fields that interests me.
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