Strategic Training for Quality Higher Education Graduates: Achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4)

Poor quality graduates and poor work adjustment among the work force are some contemporary challenges of higher education training in many societies. Affected graduates usually lack the technical skills, attitudes and competencies required to perform effectively when employed. Often times, difficulties to cope with the demands and expectations of the work environment put some at risk of job loss and redundancy; hence, undermining the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG:4). Poor quality graduate outputs have been blamed on diverse factors which include: personal, institutional and socio-cultural. However, this study is focused on the institutional factors. The position of this paper is that institutional inputs which cover training have to be more strategic and progressive for the production of high skilled workforce that are competitive both locally and globally. This will enhance the achievement of UN SDG: 4, which is targeted at enhancing learning for the acquisition of vocational and technical skills for decent work as well as for global citizenship in a global world. Based on the aim of addressing learning gaps among graduates, this paper stresses the need for instructional inputs to be in tandem with global best practices, while adapting indigenous resources (value system) to impart learners, cognitively and affectively. The paper recommends that higher education institutions should leverage the training strategies pointed out in this paper to enhance quality of graduates and future labour force that can contribute to sustainable national development.