Ten Most Marketable Courses In Nigeria

Compiled by Suraj Oyewole of Jarus Hub

Caveat: This is not based on hard data but on observations. It is compiled by JarusHub editor and 2 other contributors to this portal. Note also that this is not based on who earns the highest salary, but who has potential to earn decent income with his degree. Potential is the operative word here.

Here we go:

10. Mass Communication/Journalism: Mass Communication will remain a marketable because not many Universities do it, but many institutions need it. The downside is, journalism is not seen as exclusive preserve of MassComm graduates, as graduates of almost any course are recruited by news outfits. Yet, the course still stands a decent chance.

9. Law: Maybe the supply is fast outstripping demand and affecting pricing, Law has declined in economic value. However, it remains a Top 10 course. Whether you decide to practice or go into corporate world, or you decide to go into allied things like real estate agency, you still stand a decent chance of earning decent income with a Law degree.

8. Nursing/Laboratory Science: Nurses don’t earn mouth-watering pay, but they are hardly jobless. I see Nurses change jobs like clothes. Hospitals and clinics – private and public – are springing up everyday, and a medium size clinic needs at least 4 Nurses. Some may have as much as 20. Same goes with Lab scientists, although in lower demand.
7. Mechanical, Electrical & other related Engineering courses: Engineering courses generally sell in the oil and gas industry. In addition these courses are also asked for in other major industries.

6. Economics/Accounting/Finance: The good thing about Economics is that it fits into many roles. I hesitated to include Accounting here because Accounting degree alone without professional qualifications is not usually so helpful; however, I included it because I expect the accounting graduate to do the needful of writing professional examinations after his degree. Even without professional qualifications, you can still get a decent job with Accounting degree only in the many small to medium scale firms that require the services of accounting graduates. Finance is another great course. The three courses, sometimes alongside Management and Business Administration, are usually in hot demand, although supply still exceed demand and many graduates of these courses are still jobless.

5. Computer Science/Computer Engineering/IT courses: IT professionals are in hot demand the world over. Nigeria is not different. With special IT skills, your chance is even brighter. The downside is, anybody can learn IT skills, even if he doesn’t study computer engineering.

4. Geology: It is also a course that places you in good position to penetrate the much-sought-after oil industry.

3. Chemical/Petroleum Engineering: These courses have the potential to fetch you the fattest pay check after graduation because the companies that ask for them are those that pay heavily – the oil companies.

2. Estate Management/Architecture/Building/Survey/Civil Engineering: A degree in any of these courses places you in a good position for self-employment. Even from school, Architecture students make money drawing plans for people. We consider these courses the second most marketable courses in Nigeria.
1. Medicine: Medicine may not earn you N500k per month at entry level, but it is the course that guarantees you job the most. I have never come across a jobless medical doctor. The pay may not be as heavy as the Chemical engineering guy in the IOC, but you are guaranteed of better-than-average income as a doctor. Medicine is number 1 on our list.


Most importantly, I share the opinion of this gentleman that it is you, and hardly your course of study, that matters in marketing yourself.

Excerpts:

"My argument has always been that it is not really the course you study in the University that makes you, it is the uniqueness in you. The contemporary world of work is interested in excellence, the stuff you can offer, not in your discipline per se. This is why any education is expected to develop individuals’ three domains of learning: the cognitive, the affective and the psychomotor.

In other words, education is the process of developing one’s mental faculty, regulating and improving one’s attitudes and character as well all acquiring doing abilities.

The three domains are otherwise known as 3 h’s: the head, the heart and the hands. Any educated person, apart from having facts in his head and being of good character is expected to be able to use his hands to do things. Every student/ graduate should know how to do something with his/her hands – sowing, plaiting, writing, painting, designing, farming, etc." -Dr. Mahfouz Oladimeji, Unilorin

Published in Nigerian Telegraph

Source


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