Journal of Teaching and Teacher Education ISSN (2210-1578) J. Tea. Tea. Edu. 7, No. 1 (Jan-2019) E-mail address: curritech66@gmail.com , abiodunojoade@yahoo.com http://journals.uob.edu.bh Towards Enriching University Curricula for Vocational and Entrepreneurship Empowerment of Youths in Nigeria Ibiwumi A. ALADE 1 and Abiodun Adebowale OJO 1 1 Department of Educational Foundations and Instructional Technology, Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria. Received 19 Oct. 2018 Revised 18 Dec. 2018 Accepted 21 Dec. 2018 Published 1 Jan. 2019 Abstract: Despite Nigerian government efforts at integrating vocational and entrepreneurial curricula into higher institutions to ensure that youths are prepared for the world of work, the challenges of inertia particularly in the area of inabilities to create jobs for self-empowerment and sustenance are key factors to such entertained fear in the mind of the would-be Nigerian graduates. On the thrust of these observations, this study focused on the possible strategies of enriching university curricula for vocational and entrepreneurship empowerment of youths in Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and five research questions were answered in the study. A total of 1000 final year undergraduate students purposively sampled from some Nigerian Universities participated in the study. University Curricula Enrichment Scale (UCES)with a reliability co-efficient of 0.77 was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics of frequency counts, percentage, mean and rank order were appropriately used for data analysis. The study found that university curricula are largely void of many local vocational trades with a below average of 40.1%. Also, entrepreneurship and vocational school-work/internship learning is grossly inadequate with a percentage rating of 22.2 among others. It is recommended that all concerned with university policy formulation and implementation should re-envision university curricula for enhanced empowerment of youths for economic gains. Keywords: Curricula, Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, Vocational 1. INTRODUCTION The world over, youths are perceived to be the future and hope of every country. As education represents the instrument for human progress, youths are expected to be educated and get prepared to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Where youths are not properly educated, they would become a menace to the society. As a result, any high returns on resources invested in youths today have both immediate and long-term benefits (Bello, Danjuma & Adamu, 2007). Observations however show that Nigerian graduates of today are faced with the problem of inability to create jobs and be self-employed (Ogonna & Okpala, 2011). Many of the graduates from the higher institutions of learning are not with employable skills (Adebisi, 2014). They are thus part of the employment crises which have emerged as the most challenging issues confronting many world economics. Many of Nigerian youths are obviously not productive and have actually been reduced to petty traders and smugglers. In many instances, Hassan (2013) observed that the growth in the phenomenon of trafficking in persons and child labour can be attributed to poverty and joblessness among the youths. Despite the fact that many countries including Nigeria have realized that youth potentials can be developed and harnessed through a sound education system, the problem of graduate unemployment, most of which are youths is becoming more gargantuan each passing year. Hence, the high rate of unemployment in the country becomes the order of the day (Adebisi, 2014). In addition, graduate unemployment has come to characterize the Nigerian labour market. As a result of the inability of a proportionate Nigerian graduates to create jobs, Nnamani (2007) cited in Ogonna & Okpala (2011) declared that this has resulted in an increase of unemployment among youths. Youth unemployment in Nigeria has become a threat to socio-economic, peace and stability (Ajufo, 2015). In fact, there has been a steady increase in the involvement of youths in various anti-social activities and offences in Nigeria as a result of unemployment (Okafor, 2011). In a similar view, Ojakorotu (2010) and Gilbert (2010) affirmed that some of unemployed youths have been used as local militants to attack, bomb, vandalize and destroy oil pipelines and properties in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. http://dx.doi.org/10.12785/jtte/070103