Dual Education System as Intervention Strategy for Enhancing Employability of Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) Graduates in Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria is a country blessed with rich human and material resources, the most populous country in Africa, and ranked 7th most populous nation in the world. The country has a very high level of unemployment in spite of the fact that it boasts a large number of educational institutions, running from the primary, through secondary and tertiary levels. The high rate of unemployment in the country can be attributed to a number of factors, but prominent among these is the fact that the majority of the products of the education system do not possess the requisite skills to take up available positions in the labour market. This scenario is largely due to the fact that the education system operates in isolation from the industrial sector thus creating skills differentials. The paper was thus designed to review the dual education system as an intervention strategy for enhancing the employability of school graduates. The paper discussed the concept and history of dual education and training, the elements of a dual education system, the potentials of dual education, and the stages in the implementation of a dual education system. From the review, it was concluded that the dual education system has great potential, and if adopted in the Nigerian education system, has the ability to reduce the skills gap in the system and enhance the relevance of school learning to industrial skills needs. It was recommended among others that the Ministry of Education should constitute a high powered committee to understudy the dual education system in countries such as Germany, Netherlands, and Norway among others with a view to adopting the system.