Vocational education is credited with promoting youth employment rates across the globe. In the United Kingdom, the employment rate of vocational education graduates is about 90% men and 85% women. Between 2009 and 2019, the employment rate for Chinese secondary vocational school graduates was consistently around 95%, while in 2018 alone, over 70% joined modern manufacturing firms and start-up businesses. In the United States, a study showed that 2018 college graduates earned approximately $50,390 per year, while people in some trades (vocational education specialisations) earned roughly $60,000 per year, or $32.42 per hour.

Vocational education is a major contributor to employment globally. Vocational education clusters or centres are featured in both Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and Small but Growing Businesses (SGBs), and their overall contribution to employment and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) cannot be overemphasised. They are reported to contribute about 50% of the GDP and provide over 95% and 60% of overall business and employment opportunities, respectively. The World Bank notes that while formal MSMEs contribute about 40% of the GDP of many countries, the figures spike when data from the informal sector is added. 

Here is a bit of context to further illustrate how central vocational education could be to economic expansion and growth. In 1982, the 13th International Conference of Labour Statisticians established the official standards for obtaining data on the economically active, employed, unemployed, and underemployed population. By 2009, the ILO had concluded that the approach could not shed light on the labour market. This study culminated in establishing a working group for advancing employment and unemployment statistics and making recommendations for a revised labour force survey standard. After a series of meetings, their recommendations were instrumental in establishing the new Labour Force Survey (LFS).

In 2013, the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, held by the International Labour Organization (ILO), deliberated on revising labour force and work statistics standards. The plan was to introduce new sets of indices to labour statistics to give more details about employed, underemployed, and unemployed people. The Department of Statistics at the ILO states that international labour statistics standards should promote the global comparison of labour statistics and offer updated methods for generating national official labour statistics.

Consequently, the new Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) methodology was introduced to improve labour statistics and achieve the aim of the ILO’s LFS. It de-emphasises unemployment status as the primary determinant of poverty to emphasise how job quality, working hours, job specifications, and job type (formal or informal) affect people’s income and livelihood. 

The World Bank states that the new NLFS technique could improve Nigeria's labour market data and also aid in preparing crucial socio-economic policies that will benefit the country. The table below shows the context of ILO’s work and the categories of each in the labour statistics.

From the above table, any economic engagement that generates income provides employment, including self-owned production activities that involve providing goods and services for subsistence or contributing to household material welfare, well-being, or income. This is a job sector where vocational education clusters can be found in Nigeria. 

Since adopting the new LFS, Nigeria’s labour force statistics have improved. Nigeria's last labour survey report was for Q4 2020, which showed a headline unemployment rate of 33.3%. When a new survey was carried out for Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 using the NLFS approach, it was discovered that about ¾ (three-quarters) of working-age Nigerian residents were economically engaged. 

This table showed that more people were captured as economically active within the reference period due to the one-hour threshold. It gives more detailed information on the number of people working in Nigeria, irrespective of their income range. 

How Can Vocational Education be Utilised to Further Reduce Unemployment in Nigeria?

The table on Nigeria’s labour statistics after adopting the NLFS showed that the informal sector provides over 90% of employment opportunities across all reference periods. Likewise, the number of people engaged in self-employment contributed to over 80% of the overall economic activities in the reference period. As already established, vocational education clusters are scattered in the informal sector, and most of those involved in them are self-employed but provide employment opportunities for many Nigerians. Although the figures for Nigeria’s unemployment decreased compared to previous data up to Q4 2020, youth unemployment remains a major challenge facing Nigeria. To address this, there is a need to improve infrastructures that favour the informal sectors where vocational education is located. Adequate infrastructure, like good road networks and electricity, is needed to utilise vocational education for employment benefits in Nigeria. When local production centres make economic gains, they tend to expand and, by extension, create more employment opportunities.

Regulations should also be put in place to promote the establishment of local production centres. This can be done by providing strategic emergency MSME grants to local businesses and aspiring vocational entrepreneurs or by encouraging local business-oriented funding that needs low collateral. This way, the funding challenge prevalent in the MSME sector can be addressed.

Nigerians should be encouraged to obtain a senior secondary vocational qualification.  Vocational education increases employment chances for graduates of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET). According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), OECD countries' labour force absorbed 73% of vocational education graduates from secondary schools in 2023. The government can encourage this in Nigeria by supporting and encouraging students across the various technical colleges to obtain adequate vocational and literacy skills. Thus, equipment and machines for practical classes should be made available to technical colleges.

Vocational education clusters provide grassroots economic engagement and create employment opportunities. Their ability to innovate and produce goods and services needed by the local market cannot be overemphasised. Such endeavours do not thrive in an environment that does not promote business growth. Thus, the government needs to provide and promote a safe business environment, enabling this economic cluster to flourish alongside the formal sector. 

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