To understand the concept of
human capital development, we must first examine the term human capital and
move on to its development. The human being is the most important asset
anywhere in the world. Natural scientists opined that the human being is very
unique among living things. This is because of the high level of reasoning
human beings demonstrate in their relationships within their environments. This
reasonableness has made men to rapidly change their living conditions and their
societies; hence, many scholars view human beings as capital to organizations
and nations, though this view is not without criticism. In this sense, human
capital refers to the stock of productive skills and technical knowledge
embodied in labor. Lev and Schwartz
(1971) fall short of proffering a formal definition to the concept of human
capital, but stated that it is, “…
a source of income embodied in a person, in
the form of his brute force and his natural and acquired skills …”. This notion
of human capital treats a person’s values as though it were totally an
intrinsic phenomenon, that is, as though it were determined entirely by the
individual’s inherent qualities, traits, and skills.
In recent decades, economists
have devoted a great deal of effort to developing and to quantitative the
concept, human capital, and have studied it through the concept of investment
in its formation, in such activities as education, (academic study or
on-the-job training), migration and medical care (Becker, 1993). The whole idea
of human capital emanate from the fact that the acquisition of utilitarian
shills, talents, knowledge ,and the maintenance of the acquirer during his/her
education, study, or apprenticeship, always costs a real expense, which is a is
an investment in the person, hence such
investment is conceived to be a
capital. The point being stressed here is that the improved skills of a workman
may be considered in the same light as a machine or instrument of trade, which
facilities and abridges labor and which, though it costs a certain expense,
repays that expense with a profit over time.
Following the above line of
argument, Schultz (1995) posits that much of what we call consumption
constitutes investment in human capital. He also asserted that direct
expenditures on education, health care, and internal migration to take
advantage of better job opportunities are clear examples. According to him,
people use their leisure time to improve their skills and knowledge, which in
turn enhances the quality of the human efforts and its productivity. These
efforts are capital because they are substantially products of deliberate
investment. In the words of Becker (1993), they are called human capital
because people cannot be separated from their knowledge, skills, and heath or
values in the way they can be separated from their financial and physical
assets. Schultz, therefore, asserted that investment in human capital is
probably the major explanation for the differences observed in the productive
(output) levels in the various economics of the world. The argument is that
well-developed human capital plays an important role in the development process
of nations.
In view of the preceding description of human
capital, one conceives human capital development as the totality of efforts or
activities geared toward making the human person useful to him/herself, family,
and the society at large. Harbinson and Mongers (1964) succinctly define human
capital development as the process of increasing the knowledge, skills, and the
capacities of all people in a society.
Similarly, Essien (2000) sees it as a well thought-out plan and action
aimed at the developing and grooming of human beings so as to present them fit
and qualified to be productive to themselves, in particular, and to the entire
society, in general. Human capital development involves the provision of formal
and nonformal education that would broaden the minds of the individuals and
acquaint them with various utilitarian skills to enhance their expertise in
different fields of human endeavor. In addition, it has to do with the
provision of quality health care delivery systems that would keep the people
fit for productive functions in the economy. According to OvenseriOgbomo (2006)
for any meaningful development to take place anywhere, it must start with the
development of the human beings. He considered human capital to be the engine
of growth, agent of economic transformation, a catalyst for social
re-engineering, and a base for economic take-off. It was on this basis Schultz
(1995) argued that investment in human capital can overcome many of the
characteristics of the labor force that act as impediments to greater
productivity, such as poor health, illiteracy, un-receptiveness to new
knowledge/ideas, fear of change, a lack of incentive, and immobility.
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