Education does not create wealth. Knowledge and skills do.
I know how obsessed Nigerians are with education, how we love our certificates and titles: Dr, Barr, Eng, etc. But what we fail to understand is that having a certificate is not enough to get by in the world.
There is a reason why employers do job interviews. If having a certificate was all it took to get a job, why would they bother to find who is best suitable for it? Employers are scouting and people are making money from these graduates by helping them with their CVs. Yes, these graduates have a paper that is almost useless unless they have many other skills in place.
In 2016, I was laid off a job as a shop assistant. I submitted an application to work in a supermarket. Months later I was called in for an interview. I passed the interview and got the job. But I didn't even finish my three month trial before I was fired. I was intelligent and smart. I knew all the codes by heart. My colleagues would ask me "Hey Girl, what code is this product?" and I'd tell them right away without missing out a number. But that wasn't what they were looking for. They were looking for someone who was fast at stocking up and at scanning, who never failed to mention what promotions we had going on and who engaged customers in small talks. That wasn't me. So, I lost my job.
Back in 2013, when I was working as a staff in a fast food joint, the company was re-evaluating their policy on how they employed staff. A non graduate could only get as far in the company because for certain jobs they preferred graduates. However they noticed that these graduates had no idea how these fast food chains work, so their projection charts were filled with ridiculous expectations. As a result the company opted for a different approach. Instead of hiring graduates who were clueless about how a fast food joint works, they started training people who already worked as staff members for managerial positions. If you start working as a staff member at sixteen, by the time you are twenty, you could be an assistant manager.
You see that job I lost in 2016? If I had met all their expectations, I'd have become a manager in five years. That would have earned me a salary of £40K-£50K a year. But I didn't have the skills. A teaching job that requires a master's degree and a minimum of a first class earns between £30k-£40K a year.
Many of these so called graduates who look down on menial jobs would fail awfully at them. Yes, a lot of you would get sacked from that cleaning job you hate so much because you suck at cleaning. Many of you would fail at shop keeping, nannying, housekeeping, shoe making, tailoring, street hawking because you do not have the skills to pull them off.
Michael Metu, the guy who wants God to forgive him for ever wanting to own an ice cream cart, is probably the kind of person nobody would buy ice cream from because he is a stuck up who would look down on the kids in dirty clothes or the single mother who wants to be buy ice cream for her two little boys.
The Igbo apprenticeship was not created by graduates, but today it is praised as one of the best economical systems in the world.
You are a graduate, but you wake up every morning, shower, wear your nice suit and carry your CV to go and do a job interview at a company whose owner started as a shop attendant. The same shop attendant a senator was seen slapping on camera and whom many of you would also slap if given the opportunity.
When we say that there is dignity in labour, we are not saying that people do not have dreams or that their dream is to do the job that they are doing. What we mean is that irrespective of what their dreams are, we still need to respect their contribution to the society. Your opinion does not matter.
I respect the people who clean the streets I live. I respect the people who collect my garbage. I respect the people who keep my compound secure. I respect the people who cook and serve my meals at restaurants. I respect bus drivers.
All that is asked of you is respect. Nobody cares if you think the job is beneath you. You would probably suck at it anyway.
I know how obsessed Nigerians are with education, how we love our certificates and titles: Dr, Barr, Eng, etc. But what we fail to understand is that having a certificate is not enough to get by in the world.
There is a reason why employers do job interviews. If having a certificate was all it took to get a job, why would they bother to find who is best suitable for it? Employers are scouting and people are making money from these graduates by helping them with their CVs. Yes, these graduates have a paper that is almost useless unless they have many other skills in place.
In 2016, I was laid off a job as a shop assistant. I submitted an application to work in a supermarket. Months later I was called in for an interview. I passed the interview and got the job. But I didn't even finish my three month trial before I was fired. I was intelligent and smart. I knew all the codes by heart. My colleagues would ask me "Hey Girl, what code is this product?" and I'd tell them right away without missing out a number. But that wasn't what they were looking for. They were looking for someone who was fast at stocking up and at scanning, who never failed to mention what promotions we had going on and who engaged customers in small talks. That wasn't me. So, I lost my job.
Back in 2013, when I was working as a staff in a fast food joint, the company was re-evaluating their policy on how they employed staff. A non graduate could only get as far in the company because for certain jobs they preferred graduates. However they noticed that these graduates had no idea how these fast food chains work, so their projection charts were filled with ridiculous expectations. As a result the company opted for a different approach. Instead of hiring graduates who were clueless about how a fast food joint works, they started training people who already worked as staff members for managerial positions. If you start working as a staff member at sixteen, by the time you are twenty, you could be an assistant manager.
You see that job I lost in 2016? If I had met all their expectations, I'd have become a manager in five years. That would have earned me a salary of £40K-£50K a year. But I didn't have the skills. A teaching job that requires a master's degree and a minimum of a first class earns between £30k-£40K a year.
Many of these so called graduates who look down on menial jobs would fail awfully at them. Yes, a lot of you would get sacked from that cleaning job you hate so much because you suck at cleaning. Many of you would fail at shop keeping, nannying, housekeeping, shoe making, tailoring, street hawking because you do not have the skills to pull them off.
Michael Metu, the guy who wants God to forgive him for ever wanting to own an ice cream cart, is probably the kind of person nobody would buy ice cream from because he is a stuck up who would look down on the kids in dirty clothes or the single mother who wants to be buy ice cream for her two little boys.
The Igbo apprenticeship was not created by graduates, but today it is praised as one of the best economical systems in the world.
You are a graduate, but you wake up every morning, shower, wear your nice suit and carry your CV to go and do a job interview at a company whose owner started as a shop attendant. The same shop attendant a senator was seen slapping on camera and whom many of you would also slap if given the opportunity.
When we say that there is dignity in labour, we are not saying that people do not have dreams or that their dream is to do the job that they are doing. What we mean is that irrespective of what their dreams are, we still need to respect their contribution to the society. Your opinion does not matter.
I respect the people who clean the streets I live. I respect the people who collect my garbage. I respect the people who keep my compound secure. I respect the people who cook and serve my meals at restaurants. I respect bus drivers.
All that is asked of you is respect. Nobody cares if you think the job is beneath you. You would probably suck at it anyway.
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