The Quramo Conference Series is a platform dedicated to influencing, improving and vending knowledge towards change and development. This April, the conference theme was People Power and focused on human capital development and the investment in people which can lead to industralisation in Africa.

1. .
‘Desola Eghagha - Quramo Conference April 2016
Human Capital Development Towards
Industrialisation

2. What is Human Capital?
• American economist Theodore W. Schultz invented
the term “Human Capital” in the 1960s to reflect the
value of our human capacities. He was of the
opinion that Human Capital like any other type of
capital could be invested into via education, training
& enhanced benefits that will lead to an
improvement in the quality & levels of production.
• A more recent definition per “Investopedia” defines
Human Capital as “the collective wealth of
knowledge, talents, training, skills, judgement &
accumulated experiences for a population.
Ultimately a person’s abilities, education &
experiences have economic value both for the
individual in question & the economy as a whole.

3. What is Human Capital Development?
Human Capital development simply put,
is the investment of resources (time,
finances, etc.) in growing/building up the
skill-set of people in a population/an
organisation.
It requires critical analysis to determine
how to measure its return and optimize
its benefits for the parties involved in
particular and the general population.

4. Importance of Human Capital
Development to Nations
Adam Smith in his book, “An Enquiry Into the Nature &
Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, stated “…improvements
to Human Capital through training, education & experience
make the individual enterprise more profitable, but also
add to the collective wealth of society”.
In other words investing in the development of Human
Capital benefits not only the individual(s) in focus, but
benefits the economy of the nation as well.
A country though a separate legal entity, ceases to exist if
it has no people/citizens such as a President, Governors,
civil servants, employees of industries/organisations, all of
which are required to maintain the country’s existence.
Political leaders & businesses alike are beginning to
recognise the immense positive impact of good people
who are skilled & motivated in growth & development .

5. Human Capital Development towards
Industrialisation; Why?
• In every nation (developing & developed),
the industries are the “foundation” of the
economy. Every sector within that
“foundation” (agriculture, manufacturing, oil
& gas, construction etc) are dependent on
the availability of skilled manpower
particularly technicians. Where such
manpower is locally unavailable, it must be
imported (additional pressure on our already
meagre foreign currency reserve).
• Is it therefore not logical that our next step
as a nation is to invest in the upskilling of
our youth who make up 78% of our
population to feed the industries in this vital
sectors?

6. Why Invest in Human Capital Development contd…
In the modern society in which we all live, we all can attest to the
fact that competition is so fierce & fast that any competitive edge
gained by the introduction of new processes/technology can be
short-lived if competitors are able to adopt the same
processes/technology.
To implement change our people must have the same or better
skills & abilities. The nation must recognise the inherent value
and prospective contribution of its people to the economy & treat
money spent on upskilling its people as “investment” in an
important asset & not an “expense” to be kept at the barest
minimum.

7. Challenges to Human Capital Development
towards Industrialisation
Governments encounter many challenges to make the most of
available skills.
• The ability to assess the quality and quantity of the skills
available in the population, determine and anticipate the skills
required in the labour market, develop and use those skills
effectively in better jobs which inadvertently lead to better
lives, is a major hindrance in developing countries due to poor
data collection and analysis.
• Maintaining skills throughout each individual‘s lifecycle is
another key challenge as it requires setting up high-quality,
easily accessible opportunities for adult learning – both up-
skilling and re-training.
• Inadequate supply of internationally acceptable certified skills
and the attendant cost of achieving these certifications.

8. The Way forward - Changes Required in Our
Educational System to Support Industrial Africa
• Skills policy development requires coherence and co-operation
across all areas of life(private sector, social partners, teachers
and parents )and levels of government. Involving said parties in
the forming of these policies will make its implementation and
success more probable.
• Re-establishing/re-equipping/restructuring the Government
Technical Schools.
• Internationally recognised certification is critical as this creates a
dual opportunity for the learners;
- recruitment by locally based international organisations
- export of skilled labour
• Including relevant practical industry work experience to the
vocational studies in both technical schools and secondary
schools, will help to broaden the minds of our young school
leavers to possible lucrative careers in the industrial sector.

9. Skills development is more effective if the world of
learning and the world of work are linked.
Learning in the workplace offers several advantages:
• it allows young people to develop “hard” skills on modern equipment in a
workplace, and “soft” skills, such as teamwork, communication and
negotiation, through real-world experience.
• Hands-on workplace training also helps to motivate disengaged youth to
stay in or re-engage with the education system and to smoothen the
transition from education into the labour market.
• Workplace training also facilitates recruitment by allowing employers and
potential employees to get to know each other, while trainees contribute
to the output of the training firm and earn some income. Employers have
an important role in training their own staff.
• However some, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, might
need public assistance to provide such training.

10. Lessons from Other Parts of the World
Take a look around the Nigerian Industrial scene. It can be observed
that the majority of the players are American, European, Indian, Arab &
more recently the Chinese.
This is a direct result of the huge investment of these nations in
upskilling their people with internationally recognised and certified
vocational skills.
In Nigeria we have mostly small to medium size private training
providers delivering internationally recognised certifications which has
invariably made it quite expensive for the average learner. The
government needs to take a que from these nations and
1. invest in the upgrading its technical schools to enable them deliver
internationally recognised certified vocational skills
2. Partner with industries and give incentives (e,g tax holidays) to
industries both indigenous & foreign, to sponsor traineeship
programmes.

11. Conclusion
Key issues concerning the development and management of a
coherent and effective skills strategy include the involvement of
the private sector and social partners in the setting of schools
curricula that produces skills more relevant to labour demands,
the splitting of financing responsibilities between government, the
private sector, students and their families.
Achieving this co-operation and ensuring it is fruitful is a major
challenge in both developed and developing nations. But I believe
if we as a nation are determined, it is achievable.

12. Questions?