There’s this naivete that comes with undergraduates. Some pick course of study because their friends picked it, parents suggested so or JAMB forced them there. After school and with decent grades (or not) they spend the following years looking for an office job. After spending 4-6 years in the university, a job must be gotten.
More often we seek the job that comes with our degrees.
Many have been caged by the degree gotten in higher education. I was in a sunday service when the preacher talked about this. Our talents remain dormant while we seek blue collar office jobs for too long a time.
It’s no use blaming anybody at this stage for this. But I believe our educational system and societal expectations go a long way in making this affect many Nigerian graduates today.
On the other spectrum are those with barely basic education but own businesses where they employ and pay graduates. There’s the auto mechanic who learnt on the streets, packaged the business and now pays graduates to work for him? Then the farmer who upgraded his farms employing people.
Many are caged by their degrees.
They wonder why they should learn sewing, or become plumbers when they’re learned. Their degrees have conferred some imaginary status that it is almost sinful to consider hustling by doing small time work.
Thankfully there’s a new breed of African youths refusing the shackles of having a degree to getting their hands dirty with legit hustles putting their brains to work.
A big congratulations if you already fall in this circle but if you’re not, then this post was specially designed for you. You’re smarter/more industrious than you think. I hope you have learnt a thing or two and do something with your hands and brain.
A degree is not an express ticket to wealth, don’t be caged by it.