5 THINGS TO DO AS A YOUNG GRADUATE WITHOUT A JOB

1.0 INTRODUCTION

A graduate is a person who has undergone a course of study or training of an academic degree in any discipline and has collected the certificate of completion e.g. BSc, B.S.Eds., MSc, PhD etc. In order to avail yourself of problems related to recognition, it is a must you obtain an academic degree from any government accredited tertiary institution that has been licensed to award degrees in that specified field. This is necessary because a university education in Nigeria can be accredited but not licensed to award degrees in some courses. It is also crucial to note that the experience acquired during a course of study is a microcosm of the operation management, so therefore a graduate should have undergone at least minimum of three-month program in a company whose primary business is within the graduate’s field of study. To be young means to be at an early of development or existence. At this stage you’re said to be to be at your prime, more vibrant and high intellectual capability. Using deductive reasoning we can say that a young graduate refers to a person that is at his or her early stage of development and has acquired an academic degree in any discipline e.g. a PhD graduate at age 24 is said to be a young graduate. Unemployment is defined by the bureau of labor statistics (BLS) as people who do not have a job, have looked for work in the past for weeks and are currently available for work. Unemployment is also referred to as joblessness. Unemployment is calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of employed individuals currently in the labor force. According to trading economies.com unemployment in Nigeria increased to 23.10% in third quarter of 2018 from 22.70% in the second quarter of 2018. Unemployment rate in Nigeria averaged 12.31% from 2006 until 2018, reaching in all time high of 23.10% in the third quarter of 2018 and a record low of 5.10% in the fourth quarter of 2010.

1.1 EFFECTS OF UNEMPLOYMENT ON A YOUNG GRADUATE

1. POOR STANDARD OF LIVING; According to Wikipedia.org standard of living refers to the level of wealth, comfort, material goods and necessities available to certain socio-economic class in certain geographic area, usually a country. When there is no job, you intend to experience a very low standard of living. This is because or due to the absence of constant income such as salaries and wages.
2. STRESS AND DEPRESSION; Unemployment effectuates both stress and depression in the life of a young graduate. Unemployment makes an individual experience emotional feeling or physical tension, it also causes mood disorder, persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest.
3. LOW SELF ESTEEM; self-esteem is a feeling of satisfaction that someone has in himself or herself and his or her own abilities. Prolonged period of unemployment makes an individual to consider himself worthless, lazy, ill-luck and all manner of negative attributes.

1.2 SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT OF A YOUNG GRADUATE

1. Become a freelancer

2. Start a sole proprietorship/ partnership business

3. Invest in stock, shares and Bonds

4. Training, book writing & digital products development

5. Further or advance your education.

1.BECOME A FREELANCER: A freelancer is anybody who works for him/ herself, it is a term used for artisans who are self-employed or not necessarily committed to an employer on long term basis. The first step of becoming a freelancer is to have the mindset, you need to have the intention that you want to start providing or offering these products and services at your own discretion and you don’t want to do a salary-based job. The second step is to start creating awareness, let people know you offer such products and services, you can do this by signing up on some websites like freelancer.com, fiverr.com etc. Another good of creating awareness is to inform family and friends, word of mouth advertising is very good for this kind of task.

2. START A SOLE PROPRIETORSHIP/PARTNERSHIP BUSINESS: According to Wikipedia a sole proprietorship is also known as sole trader, individual entrepreneur or proprietorship is a type of enterprise that’s owned and run by one person and I which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business entity. According to Investopedia.com a partnership is a formal arrangement in which two or more parties cooperate to manage and operate a business, various partnership arrangements are possible in which all partners might share liabilities and profits equally or some partners may have limited liability.

The first step is to obtain a name for your business, this can be done by submitting multiple names to the CAC (Cooperate Affairs Commission) name search portal, a name search costs 500 Naira, if the name is either approved or disapproved, you’ll be notified.

The second step is to obtain an address for your business this is required during registration, unless you’re using your home address you will need to obtain an address for your business. We’ve typically two types of office address, you can either go for the virtual office with a telephone answering service or go by the order of physical office. The one you choose depends on the business need and cost of the office.

The third step is to do all registrations required by law to conduct your business operations in your location. Some of these registrations include;

1. Register your business with CAC and obtain the certificate of registration of your business name.
2. Obtain licenses and permit required to operate within your business location
3. Register your business duly with FIRS (federal inland revenue services) and obtain the VAT letter.
4. Open a bank account for your business.

The fourth step is to start advertising and simultaneously conduct subsequent market research, you can advertise your business through local newspaper, magazines, billboard, bus adverts, flyer sharing and leaflet distribution, radio announcements, jingles and TV advert etc. the medium of advertising you choose, depends on the cost of advertising, targeted audience interest, extent of coverage, flexibility etc.

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The partnership business passes through similar process but requires more documentation during registration. You will be required to submit;

1. Memorandum of understanding.
2. Application for registration.
3. Duly filled specimen of affidavit.
4. Certified copy of the partnership deed.
5. Proof of ownership of the place of business or the rental/lease agreement.

To highlight a few, It is crucial to note that you should be careful and vigilant with the kind of persons you do business with.

3. INVEST IN STOCKS, SHARES & BONDS: The smallest unit in which a company is divided as known as shares while the collection of shares of a member that are fully paid is known as stock. He who has shares is called a shareholder, he was a stock is a stock holder. According to section 61, companies Act 2013, a company can convert it shares which are fully paid up into stock. A stock holder possesses the same right a shareholder possesses. According to Investopedia a bond is a fixed income instrument that represents a loan made by an investor to borrow (typically corporate or government) owners as bond, debit owner, credit owner or the issuer.

The first step is to take a crash course on these concepts shares, stocks & bonds, you can acquire knowledge in these areas through online video tutorials on YouTube or study.com, seminars or workshops academic program, even on one on one home coaching. The need for this knowledge is to enable you know the basics of the stock exchange market, how the buying and selling of stocks are done.

The second step is to start acquiring securities from either the primary market or secondary market. An investor can acquire securities directly from the primary market when there are new offering by issuers or by trading in existing listed securities in the secondary market platform. An investor must appoint securities dealer/ stock broker, who is a registered/ dealing member of NSE to facilitate account opening and trading. More information on how to become an investor is stated on the Nigerian stock exchange official website.

The third step is to start acquiring bonds from either the primary debt market or secondary debt market. In the primary debt market federal government of Nigeria bonds auctions exercise is carried out by the DMO on a daily basis, the primary dealer market makers (PDMMS) are responsible for the submission of bids either for themselves or for clients at the auctions. Only PDMMS impaneled by the DMO can submit bids. It is in the secondary debt market that federal government bonds are done on a daily basis on a licensed broker dealer on the floor of the Nigerian stock exchange and IMDQ OTC security exchange. The PDMMS are obligated to provide a two way for FUUTA for FGN bonds. Min of 10000 Naira and multiple of 1000 Naira thereafter

4. TRAINING, BOOK WRITING & DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITAL PRODUCTS: To train means to teach a person a particular skill or type of behavior, a book is a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers. A digital product is simply a product or tool that can be developed once and sold many times. It is delivered digitally to the customers and has infinite inventory.

What you know as a young graduate, many are willing and able to pay for it. You can get yourself a job by training people the knowledge and experience you have acquired overtime. This training can be done in different ways;

1. Seminars
2. Workshop
3. Meeting
4. Classroom
5. Home coaching etc

The aspect of book writing and digital products relates to the development of instructional materials, books are read by both teachers and students. Books are also used as reference material. These are viable opportunities of earning income by selling both physical looks and digital products (audio, eBooks, video etc).

5. FURTHER YOUR EDUCATION: It is a fact that in Nigeria as you go up the hierarchy of academic degrees unemployment rate is reduced drastically, at the BSc level the number of unemployed is not the same at that if MSc level, at the PhD level unemployment rate is insignificant, I have not met a PhD holder who is jobless. Also, we live in a society where social satisfaction has a place in its mind of its residents. As a master’s degree holder, you are being rated higher in compare to those that has BSc or lower degrees, this notion also applies to higher academic degree such as dba, PhD, BSc etc.