Leveraging the Triple Helix System for Effective Employability Delivery in Nigerian Universities

Introduction

This chapter reviews the literature on the effective delivery of employability in Nigerian university education. Employability can be referred to as a set of accomplishments, including skills, knowledge, and personal characteristics, which enhance a graduate's likelihood of securing employment, succeeding in their desired career, and adapting to the ever-changing job market, ultimately leading to their success and satisfaction (Yorke & Knight, 2006). As a key educational concept, employability has become a vital discourse in universities worldwide. In fact, it is now one of the major objectives of contemporary university education. Its importance has increased mostly because of how the nature of employment is changing. The job market has become more crowded and competitive, and top firms are emphasizing transferrable skills more than just degree requirements (Tomlinson, 2008). Employers are looking for candidates that can adapt, take the initiative, and execute various duties in different contexts (Pitan & Muller, 2023). So, the importance of employability skills and whether universities are suitable for their development is no longer a topic of debate (Chouc & Calvo, 2010). The focus has shifted to producing employable graduates who possess the required transferable skills to effectively compete and succeed in the ever-changing and competitive labor market (Bridgstock et al., 2019). This has become a pressing concern for universities. This stems from the fact that the production of employable graduates, which is a major reason for both private and public investment in university education, is the expectation of every stakeholder in university education. In view of this, many universities, including those in Nigeria, are already making efforts to engage in strategic approaches to foster employability among their students (Adedeji et al., 2016; Bradley et al., 2022; Okolie et al., 2021).

A cursory assessment of the methods of delivering employability shows that employability can be integrated into the university curriculum through total embedding, explicit embedding or the parallel approach. Total embedding refers to implicitly teaching employability skills across the different courses within a degree program. In this case, no explicit methods of assessment are applied. Explicit embedding and integration refer to teaching employability skills as separate courses within a degree program. In the parallel approach, employability is delivered outside the course through careers and services rendered within the institution (Bradley et al., 2022; Romanova, 2022). It may not be possible to practice a particular approach in isolation from the others, so most institutions use some blend of all three. Also, because employability is contextual, the decision of how to deliver support must be driven by the context (Mohee, 2019).