Akinmola Morebises
This paper seeks to view vocational and technical education as a tool for economic recovery. It highlights the importance of vocational and technical education in a nation’s development process and the deliberate attempts at ensuring the realization of its national potentials. In the early 50s and 70s, secondary school leavers let alone those of tertiary institutions always had jobs begging for them with all benefits. This phenomenal change in trend in the employment world calls for greater emphasis and expansion of vocational education opportunities to overcome the problems of unemployment which has become a big social challenge in Nigeria. The paper believes that Nigeria as a nation needs to invest more in vocational and technical education if its ambition of joining the technology-driven, global link and realize its millennium development goals are to be realized. The study advocates that government at the federal, state, and local government levels in Nigeria should redirect their energy and interest into vocational education in other to empower graduates for self-relevance and develop the needed employable skills. These three tiers of government should provide funds to build and upgrade facilities, acquire the necessary vocational laboratories, working equipment, and recruit, train, and retrain well-qualified and motivated manpower for quality service at all levels.