Quantitative and Qualitative Skills: Implications for Employment

Nigeria is currently struggling to overcome high levels of unemployment; some employers in some sectors are reporting skill shortages. Nigeria enterprises are expected to face a growing number of hard-to-fill vacancies due to adverse demographic trends in most economies. Shortages, unemployment and lack of skill development have negative financial and nonmonetary consequences for employers, individuals, and society as a whole. Nigeria faces a double challenge: to overcome the current economic situation, by creating new jobs to reduce unemployment and social exclusion, but also to develop solutions to reduce skill mismatch on the labour market. While it is acknowledged that tackling skill mismatch cannot, by itself, be a solution to the high rates of (youth) unemployment that Nigeria currently faces, it is nonetheless a critical part of the equation. Quantitative skills are objective, numerical and measurable. Quantitative are analytics rely on mathematical and statistical research methods and can be used to solve business problems or to measure long-term trends. With quantitative data analysis skills, you'll be able to understand and interpret data and findings related to budgeting, mathematics, statistical analysis, probability, software applications, operations management and other areas of business strategy and management. A qualitative skill based on information is subjective and based on observation and interpretation. Both of these types of data are vital in today's business decision-making, and the ability to work with them will help you build bridges between what you learn in the classroom and the workplace, putting your career on the fast track. Skills in working with data are essential in nearly every field, and most particularly in careers related to marketing, finance, business and the broad spectrum of jobs in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. When you master the skills to analyze both quantitative and qualitative data, you'll have a powerful arsenal of diverse yet related abilities to help secure advancement in your current job and be more competitive when seeking new opportunities.