The job search has lasted three years. The degree is in botany, the study of plant life. And for Titilayo Nwosu, the conclusion is blunt: "I've been looking for three years, nobody needs that."
Nwosu, 23, graduated from university in Nigeria and has spent the time since looking for work in her field. She told BBC Africa that the prolonged search has worn her down. "It has been depressing. And there's no understatement. It has been depressing," she said.
The difficulty is twofold. There are few jobs that require her specific expertise, and she says her university training did not give her the practical skills those industries would demand. When asked if she could work in a pharmaceutical company that uses plants to manufacture medicines, she described her coursework as mostly theoretical. "Because while in school, you would just be taught basic things. What is biology? What is botany? What is ecology?" she explained.
The gap between classroom learning and workplace demands has left her questioning the value of the degree itself. Asked if she felt her years of study had been a total waste of time, she did not push back.
With no stable income, Nwosu turned to vocational skills to survive. She learned shoemaking and baking, and spent about six months training in fashion designing before she was called up for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), the mandatory service year for Nigerian graduates.
Even those trades have proven difficult to turn into a living. Shoemaking, she said, requires tools that are out of reach. "Why I did not continue shoemaking is because the tools I'm going to use are not a poor man's job. I can't afford it. My parents could not afford the tools," she said.
Baking is a cheaper entry point, but not by much. "The same thing with baking is a bit cheaper, but it is also not cheap," she added.
Nwosu's situation reflects the broader conditions for young Nigerians leaving school. The country's job market offers limited formal opportunities, and the cost of starting a business puts self-employment out of reach for many who try. For Nwosu, the practical question of how to live has overtaken any expectation that her degree would open doors. "There's still no available job for you and you have to live, you have to survive," she said.
She does not rule out the possibility that science graduates could find work if the right industries existed. "Well, you never can tell, you know," she said. But after three years, the evidence so far points the other way.
According to Pulse.ng.
