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CREATIVITY AND INVENTIONS IN EMPOWERMENT: THE ROLE OF FUNCTIONAL TO THE TARGET GROUP.

Ijaodola Susan Olatundun Department of Yoruba, Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Niger State.

Abstract Unemployment as in the sphere of human existence has continued to be a source of concern to both developed and developing countries of the world. Youth empowerment enhances the economic strength of the country which is also a contributing factor of influence that enables them to participate in the decision making which directly or indirectly affect their lives and total wellbeing. Invariably, for youth to contribute and enhance their self-worth, income, immediate family and the . This paper therefore looks into the concept of creativity and invention and the role of functional education as applied to youth empowerment. It discusses the efforts so far made in empowering Nigerian and skill acquisition, economic importance of empowering Nigerian youths, strategies for empowering youth, and the challenges of empowering Nigerian youth with functional education programmes. The paper concludes with recommendations on the topics of discussion.

Keywords – Creativity, Invention, Youth Empowerment, Functional education programmes, Skills acquisition.

Youth in is said to be Youth Corpse Decree, is the limiting age limited by age and thus those within the for youth in Nigeria Arazu, C (2008), youthful age are categorized to be within Egboh, E.A., Obi, M.A.O., Okeke, M.I. Age 7-30, age 12-30, age 18-20. It has and Eme, O.I. (2009). Those above the been agreed as a matter of convenience age of 30 maximum, according to the that 30 which features in the National National Youth Policy for Nigeria, may

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2 Creativity and Inventions in Youth Empowerment: The Role of Functional Education to the Target Group - Ijaodola Susan Olatundun be accepted to play the roles of youth entrepreneurship. In addition, both leaders, youth organizers, youth innovation and entrepreneurship demand animators, etc. The National Youth creativity. Creativity is a process by Council of Nigeria got this clause which a symbolic domain in the culture enshrined in the youth policy for is changed. New songs, new ideas, new Nigeria. machines are what creativity is about Nigerian youth are one of Mihaly (1997). the most talented in terms of innovation and self The Concept Of Creativity And reliance for economic Invention growth putting into Creative outcomes seldom consideration the number of grandaunts from its emerge in an instant: a recognized various institution of process is involved, even if it appears to learning who are making be rather chaotic. It begins with endless efforts at making a recognition of a problem or anticipation living despite the of an opportunity, and then, through insufficiency for white understanding the situation and collar jobs in the country reflecting on the issues, new linkages are and this skills make them contemplated and possibly new to be potential job combinations of components are made creators and not seekers if from this emerge visible solutions or giving the enabling environment. possibilities that are subjected to Creativity is the ability to make valuation, which may be continuous or otherwise bring into existence with judgment being suspended while something new, whether a new solution the search process is prolonged in to a problem, a new method or device, pursuit of genuine newness. or a new artistic object or form. Entrepreneurs take bold creative steps Wyckoff (1991) defines creativity as but situations encourage creativity. new and useful. Creativity is the act of Creativity is, however, enhanced when seeing things that everyone around sees people have some freedom, but not too while making connections that no one much; high internal commitment to the else has made. Creativity is moving task; but not too high a commitment; from the known to the unknown. Culture high proportion of intrinsic rewards, but exerts a negative force on creativity some extrinsic rewards as well; some according to Pearce (1974), however, competition but not winner takes- all “were it not for creativity, culture itself competition. Thompson (2001), opined would not be created.” that entrepreneurial activity depends on Drucker (1985) argued that the process of innovation following innovation is the tool of creativity, not on creativity alone.

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3 Creativity and Inventions in Youth Empowerment: The Role of Functional Education to the Target Group - Ijaodola Susan Olatundun

Importance of Creative Thinking things, thinking can produce various Creative thinking has various alterative leading to the evolution of a definitions. However, it is the art of completely new idea, new production generating solution to problems by the processes, or a total departure from the force of imagination and reasoning. It is conventional. Whatever the goal, an activity of the mind seeking to find thinking is an indispensable tool in the answer to some of life’s questions. In a life of all successful entrepreneurs. dynamic and changing world, the challenges of man are also not static. Invention They take on new forms and require a An invention is a unique or deep creative thinking approach (Okpara novel device, method, composition or 2000). process. The invention process is a It is necessary to know that we process within an overall engineering live in a thinker’s world. It is therefore, and product development process. It not surprising to see that the may be an improvement upon a machine men/women who are ahead are those or product, or a new process for creating who see ahead with the eyes of their an object or a result. An invention that mind. Men and women who have achieves a completely unique function engaged their minds in resourceful or result may be a radical breakthrough. thinking to generate idea and products, Such works are novel and not obvious which stand the test of time. to others skilled in the same field. You Every idea is a product of thinking may be taking a big step in success or and every product is the manifestation of failure. idea naked in a thinker’s mind. These Invention is often a creative are people who see problems as process. An open and curious mind opportunities to improve and do allows an inventor to see beyond what is something new or something better, known. Seeing a new possibility, people who keep these two vital connection, or relationship can spark an questions on their mind. “What can I do invention. Inventive thinking frequently to make things better, or what can I do involves combining concepts or to make better things? This is the elements from different realms that product of thinking. would not normally be put together. In making things better, the goals are Sometimes inventors disregard the usually to improve productivity and boundaries between distinctly separate efficiency, achieve the needed speed, territories or fields, (Wikipedia 2010) enhance comfort and convenience, several concepts may be considered influence returns positively, and so when thinking about invention. much more. While in making better things, thinking can produce various alternatives leading to making better

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4 Creativity and Inventions in Youth Empowerment: The Role of Functional Education to the Target Group - Ijaodola Susan Olatundun

The Role of Functional Education As correlated with development of a Applied to Youth Empowerment. country. The National Youth Policy (2001) saw the youths as the foundation The Economic Importance Of of the society. Their energies, Empowering Nigerian Youth With inventiveness, agility and orientation Functional Education Programmes. define the pace of development and Ubah (2011) posits that security of a nation; through their Entrepreneurship Education will in creative talents and labour power, a addition to helping willing recipients to nation makes giant strides in socio- establish their own small-scale business economic and political development; in or company after graduation, also help the dreams and hopes of the youths, a them to have the knowledge of how nation finds her motivation; in their entrepreneurial firms operate. It will energies and enthusiasm, the nation enable them to acquire the skill for builds her vitality and purpose; and with innovation, creativity and opportunity their aspirations, the future of the nation recognition which are very essential for is assured (Anasi, 2010). anyone entering the market. They will From the youth development also learn the skills that are necessary policy statement, one can deduce that; for the various and changing challenges peace , security, growth and they will face in their lifetime. Ubah development of a nation/society lie with suggests that in addition to these, the youths, the same way as the entrepreneurship education will be instability, disorderliness, violence and useful in: destructive tendencies also lie with the - Enhancement of economic youths. The youths must be moulded, growth for the individual and motivated and guided to imbibe and the nation. develop positive moral values that will - alleviation. be harnessed in achieving the desired - The solving of the problem of peace, security, socio-economic and youth restiveness, cultism, political development for the good of all armed robbery, vandalization of and sundry. This is necessary because, oil pipelines among others. according to Anasi (2010), the youths - Reducing of the issue of are the owners and leaders of tomorrow, kidnapping and insecurity of life they are the most active segment of the and property. population, their numerical strength is - Minimizing of human greater than that of the aging population, trafficking and prostitution. and the major ‘determiners’ of peace - The reduction of the level of and stability in the nation/ society. The unemployment and extent of youth responsible role and - The increase of income per conduct in the society is positively capita.

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Entrepreneurship education thus distributing and servicing their assumed importance against the customers efficiently. These challenges background of poverty, widespread have equally prompted the need for unemployment and the need to shift the them to examine how they function. The attention of the citizenry away from bureaucratic approach to business white collar jobs and government currently employed by the developing patronage. It will be recalled that the world have been found not to be earlier generations of educated effective, instead, creative ways of Nigerians saw government employment responding that will move the as the ultimate, and most citizens entrepreneurs towards the idea age that (educated or otherwise) have learned to has characterized the world of business look up to government for the provision is the in-thing. This challenge therefore of even the basic necessities of life. This of utilizing ideas has made many “Big Brother” role of government, companies to turn to creativity training. however, is unsustainable in the light of Creativity is defined as the ability to emerging global realities. The trend in develop ideas that are unique, useful and the world is for more compact worthy of elaboration. It involves the governments which are able to channel use of ideas (working on ideas) until higher percentages of national earnings something comes out of it. Creativity is to capital rather than recurrent the ability to solve problems, fashion expenditure. Contrary to this popular products, and define new questions in a developmental philosophy of particular cultural setting. This implies governance, Nigeria for a long time that what is considered creative in one adopted a patronizing, paternalistic and setting may be a regular occurrence in consumerist philosophy of governance another. The key word to creativity where recurrent government expenditure therefore is “insight” which emphasizes in Nigeria is often in excess of 70% of the might or ability to see a new thing the national budget. To reverse this ugly (Woolfolk, 1998). The question then is, trend, government has made known its will people with insight automatically intention to promote private enterprise become creative? The answer is that the and to stimulate the entrepreneurial possession of creative ability ensures spirit in Nigerians. that an individual might exhibit creative behaviour to a noteworthy degree. The Strategies To Empower Youth However, the individual’s motivation, With Functional Education temperamental traits and willingness to Programmes. learn will also count. It also includes the The world of business is facing urge to engage in new things, tendency increasing pressure on a variety of ways. to favour or not to favour objects, self- They are faced with the challenges to confidence and willingness to take risks. release new-products, find market, while These are all contributing factors that

Journal of Teacher Perspective, Volume 10 No. 1 December, 2015: ISSN 2006 - 0173

Creativity and Inventions in Youth Empowerment: The Role of Functional Education to the 6 Target Group - Ijaodola Susan Olatundun determine who will exhibit creativity utilization. The creative process, a (Onu, 2006). Training in creativity can complicated process, involves the ability help the individual view problems from to generalize, evaluate, design, trouble different perspective. It is also useful in shoot, make decisions, create, modify, generating unique solution (Vangundy, simplify, synthesize, hypothesize, learn 1992). The need for training in creativity new skills and memorize while utilizing can be explained based on recent various forms of higher order cognitive technological advances, short production processes. The individual’s ability to cycles, global trade possibilities and solve problems creatively therefore is fluctuating labour force. The link dependent on his/her ability to utilize between creativity and problem-solving knowledge required to solve specific skills are therefore strong. Creativity problems (Onu, 2006). These abilities will ensure that the individual is can be classified by the type of problems involved in initiating new projects, to be solved and the strategies (that must create opportunities while solving be structured) to be utilized in solving problems. Knowledge of creativity will the problems. Problem-solving cannot also ensure that the individual learns to be divulged from creativity. The process produce practical solutions to newly of thinking, finding fact, seeking ideas defined initiatives. These and other and solution are processes involved in things are what creative problem-solving creativity. In creative problem-solving, in the realm of creativity encourage. In ideas are generated; solutions found and getting creative people to work together, evaluated so as to select best ideas. The heterogeneous mix of preferred creative sum total must be for the purposes of process style outperform teams with doing business. Linking homogeneous mix in innovative work entrepreneurship with creative problem- (Vangundy, 1992). This means that in solving therefore make the entrepreneur entrepreneurship, getting people who are a “system thinker”, one who intuits, an implementers, generators, optimizers inventor, with an entrepreneurial and conceptualizers work with like mindset (Eno-Obong, 2006). The minds will give a better result than entrepreneurial mindset sees needs, mixing all forms of creative individuals problems and challenges as in a group. This obvious mix-match of opportunities. He/she comes up with creativity traits may be contributory to innovative ways to deal with the the obvious failures witnessed by many challenges, utilizes and consolidates establishments in Nigeria. In a creative opportunities. He/she is equally an and competitive world of optimist, a strategist, one who is entrepreneurship, the drive is to deliver confident and hardworking. He/she is creative and innovative wares. These never afraid of failure. innovations that add values to human welfare result in a better resource

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The Challenges of Empowering students offering entrepreneurship Nigerian Youth With Functional innovation, invention and creativity. Education Programmes. In order to enrich the curriculum There are several factors that of entrepreneurship, the tertiary hinder entrepreneurship education in institutions offering entrepreneurship Nigeria. They include: education should organize periodic field  Poor knowledge based on the trips, industrial tours to industrialized subject matter and low spirit of nations, mentorship programme, hosting dedication to duty of exhibitions/fairs, coaching/grooming,  Unavailability of fund seminars/conferences/workshops and  Insensitivity of government to exchange programmes in order to inspire enterprise creation and undergraduate students and learners to expansion strategy imbibe entrepreneurial traits.  Non-inclusion of Sequel to prescription (b) above, entrepreneurship programme in there is the need for periodic review and the school curricula assessment of the contents of the  Poor societal attitude to entrepreneurship education curricula. Technical and Vocational The school curriculum should Education development pragmatic, that is, inculcate in the  Inadequate facilities and undergraduate students practical equipment for teaching and enterprise-building skills which should learning be turned into viable business  Poor plan and execution of opportunities during and after processes of action graduations, thereby reducing youth  Isolated pro-pockets of unemployment in Nigeria. ineffective programmes and Entrepreneurship education thrives more management incompetencies when strengthened by University (Oviawe and Ekhovbiye, 2008). technology business incubation centers (TBICs). Nigerian Universities, Recommendations on Further Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Improvement on Youth should therefore be actively involved in Empowerment through Functional the creation of TICs for better and . effective promotion of entrepreneurship The Federal government should education. This is the model in Brazil, evolve a national culture of Australia, USA and other economies. entrepreneurship by supporting, training From prescription (d) above, the and rewarding self-reliant graduates National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) across the tertiary levels in Nigeria. This scheme should be refocused as a period approach would help foster among for acquisition of Entrepreneurship skills and implementation of those skills

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8 Creativity and Inventions in Youth Empowerment: The Role of Functional Education to the Target Group - Ijaodola Susan Olatundun during the service year. After passing background in academia should be out, it is expected that the trainees will engaged and sent for accelerated training establish personal businesses. Massive within and outside Nigeria. Experts with awareness and sensitization are required practical experience in entrepreneurship in order to embed entrepreneurship from the industry could also be engaged culture in the higher institution systems on full or part-time arrangement. and the larger society. With particular The authorities of Nigerian reference to the school systems, there is higher institutions should explore the the need for culture of entrepreneurship prospect of securing assistance and education to be integrated into all advisory services from government’s academic courses of study in tertiary support agencies for their graduates institutions and secondary schools. This interested in establishing start-up singular initiative would re-orientate the businesses. The National Directorate for Nigerian youth thereby changing their Employment (NDE), the National mindsets from job-seeking mentality to Poverty Eradication Programme job-creating mindset. The government (NAPEP) and the Small Medium should refocus the Education Trust Fund Enterprises Development Agency (ETF), Petroleum Development Trust (SMEDAN) are particularly relevant. Fund (PTDF) and Federal Ministry of The various governmental support Education (FME) to earmark a agencies such as Federal Institute of substantial portion of their budget for Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO), funding public universities/polytechnics National Office for Technology and colleges of education offering Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), entrepreneurship education courses. The Raw Materials Research and funding should cover training, research, Development Council (RMRDC) et infrastructural development and cetera should align their statutory programmes for academic and mandates with promotion of administrative members of staff in entrepreneurship education in the charge of entrepreneurship education Nigerian higher institutions. across the three levels of tertiary The various micro-finance banks institutions. should be alive to their obligations by The Vice Chancellors, Rectors providing the needed financial and and Provost overseeing the affairs of the advisory services to graduates and non- universities, polytechnics and colleges graduates that have passed through of education respectively should ensure entrepreneurship education and who that course instructors/lecturers assigned possess viable business plans and zeal of to teach entrepreneurship education are establishing innovative small-scale specialists in the field. However, where businesses. there are difficulties in getting experts, non-specialist lecturers with relevant

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