INVESTING IN TEACHER EDUCATION TO CHECK GRADUATE UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE 21st CENTURY: IMPLICATION FOR COUNSELLING

Abstract

This article is a theoretical paper aimed to investigate the investing in teacher education to check graduate unemployment in the 21st century: implication for counselling. Unemployment is continuously referred to as a cankerworm to the development and sustainability of the country’s economy. It is alarming that this epidemic does not only occur with uneducated people or school dropouts but is now
evident among graduates of tertiary institutions. This paper discusses the importance of committing more financial resources to the education of teachers for the purpose of training them to be more effective in the production of graduates with appropriately developed skills. Other areas of concern in this paper include the challenges to effective teacher education, the role of teachers in the quality of tertiary education graduates, and the cost implication of producing teachers with skills that will impact positively on the quality of graduates in the labour market. The paper concludes that teacher education is a major factor in resolving the problem of graduate unemployment. The paper therefore suggests that government should invest more funds on teacher education so as to provide opportunities for teachers to be continually and properly trained to meet up with globally trained teachers so as to equip them with requirements that are required in the teaching profession to produce school graduates who are employable and relevant in the 21st century economy.