In Nigeria today, the only way to survive the rage of unemployment is through skill acquisition. Acquiring the best skills is what will distinguish you from the crowd.
I attended a seminar during my final year at the university, and the speaker made a statement that still resonates with me. He said, “There are Jobs in Nigeria, but graduates with the required skills to fill the vacant positions are few.” This statement implies that the issue isn’t that there are no jobs in Nigeria. Rather, there are few people who fit in.
The above statement took me years to comprehend, but I finally understood it through my brother.
My brother and I are the test sample for the statement. The reason is that
1. He had IT skills before graduation, while I had none.
2. He didn’t look for a job the way I did. I searched for jobs for many years while he was using his IT skills to make cool cash for himself without submitting a CV and writing applications.
Please get me right, one of the reasons why I failed to secure a job early after graduation was attributed to inadequate skills required by the companies I applied to. Every company has what it looks for, which must be seen in whomever it wants to employ.
I have decided to group the skills in IT skills, Vocational skills, and skills you need to develop to secure your dream jobs. All the skills I am about to mention are very lucrative in Nigeria.
Read: Top Profitable Business Idea for Students
List of trending IT skills to learn in Nigeria
- Programming/Coding skill
- Content Writing
- Digital Marketing
- Data Analysis
- Networking
- Microsoft office suite
- Video Editing
- Adobe suite: Photoshop, Dreamweaver
- Graphic design
- Web design
- Typing skill
You need to learn all the above skills to be more valuable. It can be learned online for free, especially through YouTube, blog articles, and Free book PDFs. For example, I learned C++ and Fortran through downloaded videos online and free articles in PDF.
Programming/Coding skill
Coding is learning any of these skills: Fortran, Java, C++, Python, MySQL, Oracle, HTML, etc. I intentionally included Fortran because it was what I used and am still using along with C++ for my research work. Although it is an old language, it can make a lot of difference in your life if you learn it.
If you can learn any of the languages and good at it especially Java, Oracle, MySQL, C++ etc., you a hot cake.
Digital Marketing
It is the commercial process of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service using digital technologies. Digital marketing is categorized into online and offline marketing. I recommend that you read Neil Patel’s articles on digital marketing. Reading his articles will kick-start your journey of learning this great skill, which has the potential to make you an asset.
Typing Skill
Typing skill is the icing on the cake. It makes you perfectly fit into the digital world. It can be learned by installing software like Mavis Beacon on your laptop.
Microsoft office suite
I will recommend that you learn how to use Microsoft Excel. This is a powerful tool that can assist you in data analysis. One of the interesting features of Microsoft Excel is that it can do some of what you use C++ and Fortran programming languages to do.
List of Best Vocational and Handwork skills to learn in Nigeria
Vocational skills in this article are also handwork skills because they require undergoing training for you to be proficient in them
One of the trending and lucrative vocational skills in Nigeria is photography. Why? Photo-shoot is now trending in Nigeria. Everyone wants to post nice pre-wedding pictures, birthdays, graduations, etc., on social media.
Below is the list of vocational/handwork skills
- Photography
- Cooking
- Tiles laying
- Makeup Making
- How to repair cars
- Fashion designing (Recommended: How to start tailoring business)
- Selling car parts
- Shoe and bag-making
- Hairdressing
- Brick making and laying
- Printing
- Dye, soap, cream, etc. making
- Writing and proofreading
Skills to develop to secure your dream jobs
Have you ever gone through the job requirements of big companies? Most of the companies require you to have skills in the following areas.
- Communication
- Leadership
- Analytical
- Creative and Innovative skill
- Organization skill
- Ability to learn quickly, identify issues, and propose innovative solutions
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