Abstract

Employers of labour and business organizations often complain that, graduates from Nigerian universities are illequipped
and
that
there
is
a
mismatch
between
the
skills
acquired
by
the
graduates
and
employers’
expectations.
This

mismatch
could
be
due
to
lack
of
essential
skills
and
competencies
needed
by
the
graduates
to
make
them
qualify
and
to

compete
with
few
existing
jobs
as
well
as
contribute
successfully
to
enterprise
progress.
However,
social
innovation
has

emerged
as
a
potentially
sustainable
solution
to
economic,
educational
and
societal
challenges.
Thus,
this
study
focused

on

the effect of the social innovation dimension on skill acquisition among university graduates in Nigeria. A crosssectional
survey
design
was
adopted
for
the
study.
From
the
study
population
of
36,494,
five
hundred
and
thirty-three

copies

of a validated questionnaire with Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient ranging from 0.750 to 0.937 were
administered to 2019 Batch C Youth Corps Members deployed to six selected states which represented the six geopolitical
zones in Nigeria. The data collected were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The results of the analyses revealed
that social innovation dimensions had a positive and significant effect on skill acquisition among university graduates in
Nigeria (Adj. R
 
2
 = 0.254, F (4, 510) = 44.826, p < 0 xss=removed>  
t = 4.2428, p = 0.001) and digital innovation (? = 0.264, t = 4.329, p = 0.001)  had a positive and significant effect on skill
acquisition, entrepreneurship education had a positive but insignificant effect on skill acquisition (? = 0.056, t = 1.012, p
= 0.312) and agricultural innovation had a negative and insignificant effect on skill acquisition among university
graduates in Nigeria (? = -0.039, t = -0.880, p = 0.379). Hence, the study recommended that there should be curriculum
reforms that will promote the use of social innovation for the development of essential skills to bridge the skill gap
among Nigerian graduates.