The Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, has tasked polytechnics across the country to embark on quality research proposals that would translate into commercial and innovative use.
TETFund Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono, made the call during an interactive meeting with Rectors and Directors of Research of Polytechnics on National Research Fund, NRF, grants in Abuja on Wednesday.
Echono lamented the huge shortage of skills in critical sectors of the nation’s economy, stating that it means the country was not “producing graduates that are fit for purpose, that meet the needs of the industry, that are ready to take up responsibility and contribute their quota upon engagement.”
According to Echono, the fund wants to see polytechnics taking more active parts in solving society’s problems, in solving the country’s developmental challenges and proffering solutions that would ease the various operations of the country.
He said: “No research would be of benefit to a country like Nigeria, If we are not translating that and applying the products of such research to affect our daily lives, if we are not transferring that knowledge, that creative spark, into the production of goods and services that could create employment for our people, that would improve our standard of living and that would grow our economy, and activate all segments of our economy.
“I believe you are aware that there is a compelling need for a shift in focus. We are producing graduates in an economy that is underdeveloped, yet they are unable to find employment. We have situations where foreign concerns, foreign companies, and foreign businesses are relocating to our country under the guise of not having the right manpower to carry out their operations.
“We have a situation where side-by-side there is very high graduate unemployment. It’s a huge shortage of skills in critical sectors of our national economy. It means we are not producing graduates that are fit for purpose, that meet the needs of the industry, that are ready to take up responsibility and contribute their quota upon engagement. The other aspect is that we continue to produce manpower that the current structure of our economy can no longer absorb.”
