AfriGrowth National Essay Competition, 2013.

Mentoring: A Tool for Youth Empowerment and Employment Generation

Submitted by:
Authors Surname name: ADETUNJI

Authors First Name: Matthew Authors Middle Name: Olaide School Name: Obafemi Awolowo University Department: Agricultural Extension and Rural Development School registration/ matriculation number: AXR/2007/003 Full residential address: Block 10c, Awolowo Hall, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State. Nigeria. Telephone number: +2348076086968 Email address: matthewoa2010@gmail.com

WINNING ESSAY FOR THE AFRIGROWTH NATIONAL ESSAY COMPETITION, 2013 AWARDED on September 3, 2013, in Abuja, Nigeria, West Africa

Name: ADETUNJI Matthew Olaide School: Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,Nigeria Matric. No: AXR/2007/003

Mentoring: A Tool for Youth Empowerment and Employment Generation Abstract The article critically reflects on the positive portrayal of youths significance and essence of youth mentoring as a strategy for equipping youth educational and vocational system; since youth unemployment in Nigeria is as a result of poor skills for employability or entrepreneurship. My proposed model suggested that youth would bear the fruits of employable skills, entrepreneurial spirit, invention and peaceful livingempowermentif government can foster mentoring of youth through educational, vocational, and other youth development schemes in Nigeria. Key words: Youth, Mentoring, Empowerment, Employment, Entrepreneurship, Education and Government

INTRODUCTION Definitions of youth and mentoring Conventionally, the word youth is age bound and connotes being young. Youth is a relative term, defined by a given age range, and with its meaning varying across cultures, groups, and countries. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations defined youths as young men and women between the ages of 15 and 24 years (Ifenkwe, 2012). The National Youth Development Policy (2009) defines youth as people aged 18-35. They constitute about 40 percent of the more than 140 million people of Nigeria. The total population of youth between 10 and 24 in Nigeria was 45.4 million in 2006, which is 34 percent of the total population. Moreover, university graduates aged 30 years and below, are recognized by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) as eligible to serve the nation under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. This gives another definition to the concept of Youth in Nigeria.

Name: ADETUNJI Matthew Olaide School: Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,Nigeria Matric. No: AXR/2007/003

Therefore, one can infer that; youths are the young ones in our communities, who are reproductively matured, brave, strong to serve, or at the age range of completing higher education or the cultural-equivalent of western education, apprenticeship. It can also be deduced that youths activities are contributing to any national economic growth because they are found at the level of working class. Hence, there is a relationship between youths education, employment, entrepreneurship and empowerment that contribute to economy. The relationship can also be made positively influential through continuous-youth-development which is pertinent to mentoring. Mentoring unite people who have unique skills and knowledge (mentors) with individuals (mentee) who need or want the same skills and advantages to move up in work, skill level, or learning performance. Effect of youth mentoring and perceptions We are now living in a global society that takes mostly technological, psychological and economical views into considerations for empowerment and employment strategies. One of the acts of combining these views together for empowerment is through MentoringI perceived. Interestingly, Cavell et. al., (2009) explained mentoring to be one component of a program that involves other elements, such as tutoring or life skills training and coachingthe review also elucidated further that mentorship: Leads to supportive healthy relative between mentors and mentees which could be immediate and long-term benefits for youths. Increased high school graduation rates Lower high school dropout rates Higher college enrollment rates and higher educational aspirations

Name: ADETUNJI Matthew Olaide School: Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,Nigeria Matric. No: AXR/2007/003

Improved behavior, both at home and at school Stronger relationships with parents, teachers, and peers Improved interpersonal skills Decreased likelihood of initiating drug and alcohol use

Life is in stages. My philosophy of life is that; what we become in life is truly the reciprocal of what beset our ways and our reactions to it. This poises my mind most often to create changes as a humanitarian due to my experience, research and observation. In essence, life begins with adoption processes which come from the act of mentoring and this is conventional for growth, learning, and discovery; intrinsic for empowerment and employment in the global society. Problem Statement Poor youth mentoring denies empowerment and employment opportunities In the recent years, in Africa, especially a case of Nigeria among others, has a dearth of youths graduating with inefficient skills and dwindling professional etiquettes required of many international corporate environments for employment. As a result, more than half of Nigeria graduates are unemployed every year and thereby continuously forming an exponential growth of youth unemployment. This is evident when considering: Over 80% of graduates in Nigeria are unemployed, in spite of their qualifications, the inability of the higher educational institutions to meet the needs of these graduates as well as promotion of economic self reliance and self sufficiency has resulted into youths joblessness (Nwaoga and Omega, 2012).

Name: ADETUNJI Matthew Olaide School: Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,Nigeria Matric. No: AXR/2007/003

The graduate unemployment in Nigeria is attributable to the fact that employees education and skills acquired are inadequate to meet the demands of modern day jobs (Akinyemi et. al., 2012)

Sufficient skills can be adopted from the act of mentoring. The reviews from research literatures above show that youth unemployment and poor development is as a result of insufficient skills acquired by these youths from their institutions of learning. CRITICAL REVIEWS OF MENTORSHIP According to Louw and Waghid (2008), they explained that the complexity of mentorship roles are manifested by the functions that are supposed to be included in the mentorship role(s). Hopkins Thompson (2000) showed that mentors transfer wisdom with regard to norms, values and morals of the organization and support mentees through medication, counseling and support while providing information that mentees would otherwise not have been able to access. Daresh (1995) explained mentors to be helpful in shaping the lives of young, less experienced colleagues while guiding them. Daresh (1995) regard the mentor as a master who provides opportunities for growth by identifying situations and events which contribute to enhancing the knowledge and experience of the mentee and which helps him or her to recognize and deal with dangerous situations. All these literatures prove the inevitability of mentorship in educational system or vocational trainings, needed in Nigeria. It can be deduced that proper adaptation of mentorship would reduce the gap between experienced ones and the inexperienced, and a linkage of knowledge and awakening of inherent skills.

Name: ADETUNJI Matthew Olaide School: Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,Nigeria Matric. No: AXR/2007/003

My personal observation as a student of Obafemi Awolowo University, as derived from a focus group reveals that; students who have school fathers (familiar lecturers or guidance) get adapted to the campus faster and better academically than other students with no former familiarity. Students having guidance easily get up-to-date information, past questions and choice of career unlike other counterparts. This is an act of mentoring, if enhanced properly, could transcend youth educational system in Nigeria for employment relevancy in corporate world and build spirit of enterprise for entrepreneurships, which is absolute empowerment.

Name: ADETUNJI Matthew Olaide School: Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,Nigeria Matric. No: AXR/2007/003

METHODOLOGY OF MENTORING Proposed model for youth mentoring for empowerment

Figure 1: Proposed model for youth mentoring & empowering strategy (Matthews tree-mentor model) In order to provide relevant employable skills as youth empowerment; the proposed model describe youth as trees needed to be nurtured by government policy for mentoring, that underlies good cultural norms and gender plurality, through the family, educational system, vocational training, Organizations and Media. This is believed to bear the fruits of empowerment: peaceful

Name: ADETUNJI Matthew Olaide School: Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,Nigeria Matric. No: AXR/2007/003

living, employment opportunities, entrepreneurial skills, and innovations. Mentoring should start from home with cultural-plurality to primary and higher institutions of trainings; with the ambition of creating employment and making youths relevant in their corporate societies. CONCLUSIVE MENTORING When youths in apprenticeships and schools--higher institutions and universitiesare groomed to learn the skills needed in their future for employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, from relevant mentors, they soon become empowered to better promote the global economy.

Name: ADETUNJI Matthew Olaide School: Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,Nigeria Matric. No: AXR/2007/003

REFERENCES Akinyemi, S., Ofem, I. B., Ikuenomore, S. O. (2012). Graduate turnout and graduate employment in Nigeria. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science (Pp. 257265) 2:14. http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_2_No_14_Special_Issue_July_2012/30.pdf Accessed 6 June, 2013 Cavell, T., DuBois, D., Karcher, M., Keller, T., and Rhodes, J. (2009). Strengthening mentoring opportunities for at-risk youth. Retrieved from http://www.mentoring.org/downloads/mentoring_1233.pdf http://findyouthinfo.gov/youth-topics/mentoring/mentoring-practice Accessed 6 June, 2013 Daresh, J. (1995). Research base on mentoring for educational leaders: what do we know? Journal of Educational Administration 3:7-16. Hopkins-Thompsons. (2000). Colleagues helping colleagues: mentoring and coaching. In full and italics NASSP Bulletins 84: 29-36 Ifenkwe, G.E. (2012). Mobilizing and empowering youths for sustainable community rural development in Nigeria. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development (Pp. 148-152) 1:2226-6348. http://www.hrmars.com/admin/pics/769.pdf Accessed 6 June, 2013 Louw, T. V., Waghid, Y. (2008). A deliberative democratic view of mentorship. South African Journal of Higher Education (Pp. 207-221) 22(1): 1011-3487. National Youth Development Policy 2009-2014 (Pp. 45). http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/MediaLib/Downloads/Home/Publications/YouthPublicatio ns/NationalYouthPolicyPDF/NYP.pdf Accessed 6 June, 2013

Nwaoga, C. T., and Omega, F.C. (2012). Entrepreneurship and employability among nigerian graduates. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences (Pp. 68-74) 3(16):2039-9340. http://www.mcser.org/images/stories/MJSS-Specialissues/MJSS%202012%20Special%20Issue%20vol%203%20no%2016/Chinyere%20T.%20 Nwaoga%20and%20Faith%20C.pdf Accessed 6 June, 2013 NYSC. Laws of the Federation, National Youths Service Corps Act, Chapter N84 (Pp.3). http://www.aksjlegalresource.com/resource/Laws_of_the_Federation%5CNATIONAL%20Y OUTH%20SERVICE%20CORPS%20ACT.pdf Accessed 6 June, 2013