ENDOGENOUS MORALITY AND THE CHALLENGE OF GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY IN AFRICA

Oreoluwa Idris Adesanya

Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

ORCID NO: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-0530-2338

Abstract

Graduate unemployment has been a perennial problem in most African countries over the years. Several factors have been attributed to the lingering problematic of increasing rates of unemployment in African economies, which include the lack of employability-enhancement training programs in several African tertiary institutions, most especially in the universities. The problem of unemployment is further compounded by the poor cultivation of soft skills such as work ethic, which can further promote such values as professionalism, integrity, accountability, trust, motivation, punctuality and so on, amongst university graduates. Beyond the poor cultivation of work ethic amongst university graduates, the western-centric nature of university education curriculum in Africa marginalizes endogenous moral systems that should promote certain virtues and values embedded in African culture, such as the Yoruba Omọ́lúàbí doctrine and the Xhosa Ubuntu philosophy. This paper also observes that the ‘ideal employee’ can be considered to be a person of moral character, from the standpoint of virtue ethics, as well as on the basis of African endogenous moral frameworks. The paper adopts the method of conceptual and critical analysis in studying the relationship between endogenous morality, work ethic and university employability amongst African graduates. The paper contends that the cultivation of work ethic and its attendant principles and values is crucial for achieving the employability of university graduates in Africa. Therefore, individuals who possess strong work ethic can be considered as the ‘ideal employees’, due to the fact that they possess the drive for success, which propels them to achieve goals being set for them by employers.

Keywords: Graduate, University, Work Ethic, Employability, Ideal Employee, Endogenous Morality.