BUSINESS

Getwork retrains unemployable Nigerian graduates—-Yetunde Ajibade

&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph"><strong><em>Why are things not working in Nigeria&quest; Why are corporate organizations folding up and government institutions failing&quest; Why is Nigeria yet like other developed economies&quest; Where does Nigeria intend to be in subsequent decades&quest;<&sol;em><&sol;strong> <strong><em>Simple as these posers may be&comma; they are the factors that must be factorised for Nigeria’s growth metrics to align&period; They are   questions to be responded to if Nigeria must move forward&period; What is central to all of this is latent manpower&period; In this early stages of 21st century&comma; Nigeria still depends on expatriates to construct its roads&comma; rail tracks&comma; air space management&comma;  marine engineering etc&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong> <strong><em>Incidentally&comma; this abnormalities arrested the attention of Yetunde Ajibade &comma;  an attorney&comma; a trainer&comma; lecturer&comma;  sales expert&comma; montessori directress&comma;  educationist&comma; who&comma; in this exclusive interview with OpenLife&comma; offers perspectives into her training programmes for Nigeria’s unemployable graduates through  her <&sol;em>GETWORK NIGERIA<em>&period; She spoke with <&sol;em>Isaac Ngumah<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph"><strong>What is it all about&quest;<&sol;strong><br><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng">Getwork <&sol;a>Nigeria is a platform that I and my partner&comma; Bunmi Jasmine Omeke initiated&period; The meaning of Getwork Nigeria is graduate training workshop&period; The  reason we started Getwork Nigeria  was because we realized that we have  lot of graduates who are not employable&period; So&comma;  we decided to help in our own little way to start a movement&period; We are getting people to start thinking about equipping our graduates for a workforce&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">&nbsp&semi;Personally&comma; &nbsp&semi;I am a trainer&comma; an educationist and I am also an event consultant&period;<br>Technically&comma; Getwork Nigeria &nbsp&semi;is graduate empowerment initiative with the objective of training&comma; recruiting and managing talents to help young graduates transit into the work environment effectively&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Has the programme start&quest; &nbsp&semi;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">We started the very first edition of Getwork in March last year&period; We shop listed &nbsp&semi;the first 30 applications and we started to empower them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">The real reason for this is &nbsp&semi;because we believe that a lot of graduates are unemployable &comma; hence&comma; they need to be retrained to fit into recruitment requirements&period;<br><strong>Can you give an insight into the training&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph"><br>First&comma; we are very methodical in our application assessment&period; We open up our Getwork portal &nbsp&semi;for application&period; There are &nbsp&semi;graduates all over Nigeria sending in their application&period; We ensure &nbsp&semi;that we are training those who actually went to school to study&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">We review &nbsp&semi;some of the first applications that we have received and get the applicants interviewed&period; Thereafter&comma; we organize training for them in a very comfortable venue&period; We use the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs&period; We are lucky to have other supporters&period; Getwork coaches them for three days with&nbsp&semi; various facilitators&comma; entrepreneur influencers&period; They are taught the actual skills that they would need to become employable as well as become &nbsp&semi;asset to organizations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Google supported the programme&period; They supported the programme through teaching &nbsp&semi;Google skills&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">&nbsp&semi;They are instilled with the &OpenCurlyQuote;I can&comma; I will attitude’ to face all challenges&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">&nbsp&semi;<strong>When is the next one &quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Another Getwork programme is coming up in March 2021&period; We just ended this &nbsp&semi;year in March&period; Entry applications will soon commence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph"> <br><strong>How many graduates have you been able to train&quest;<&sol;strong><br>On the maiden edition of <strong>Getwork<&sol;strong> &comma; Bunmi and I sat and we decided that we are going to focus on a number  we are sure  we can properly  impact&period; To us&comma;  there is no point training a thousand people and you don&&num;8217&semi;t have the tools to support&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">&nbsp&semi;So&comma; &nbsp&semi;in the maiden edition of Getwork&comma; we had 30 participant&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">But &nbsp&semi;I have had several mentees who I work on a daily basis&comma; helping them gain employment and become the people of value in the organizations they work for&period;<br>Can you tell us about the skills so far&quest;<br>We offer &nbsp&semi;soft skills of the academic part of their qualification and we also teach them social skills&comma; communication skills&comma; business education&comma; putting CV together&comma; dressing for success&comma; creating positive first impression&comma;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">presentation skills&comma; public speaking including other computer applications&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph"><br><strong>You are a sales expert what do you do as a sales expert&quest;<&sol;strong><br>Well&comma; it is just understanding the act of selling&period; It is one thing to have a product or a service&comma; it is another thing to be able to communicate this to your target ordience&period; &nbsp&semi;Selling is something that decides if your business will survive or not&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">&nbsp&semi;<br><strong>Can you tell us about your management consulting&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Like I told you&comma; I was very curious about sustainability&period; I am concerned about how business outlast various challenges to become conglomerate and sustainable&period; I know we can start business in Nigeria but why are business started by founder don&&num;8217&semi;t get to second third generation&quest; These agitated my mind and I started looking at how do we structure businesses&period; Business will not function without people and processes&period; So&comma; how do we manage our businesses to deliver profit for the organisation and I studied this and I brought some of my friends together who are also trainers and management consultants &nbsp&semi;and we decided to start coaching professionals&period; That was how I started&period;<br><strong>What is your vision through empowerment<&sol;strong>&quest;<br>To see a better Nigeria&period; I want to see a Nigeria we are all proud of&period; A Nigeria that we can leave for our children&period; A Nigeria that we can sell to the world&period; How do you want government &nbsp&semi;to support your imitative&quest;<br>It will be lovely if we can partner with the government just to empower as many graduates as possible we can power&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Nigerians are naturally intelligent people&period; I see them as some of the most intelligent people in the world&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">&nbsp&semi;<strong>What are your views &nbsp&semi;on women in politics&quest;<&sol;strong><br>Politics&excl; That&&num;8217&semi;s the future&period; We are having more women presidents&comma; we are having more women ministers and we are having more women in active politics around the world&period; I think it is a welcome development&period; I think it is something that makes me proud to be a woman&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">The same way a man could be active in politics is the same way a woman could be active in politics&period; I think the men should support the women to be active in politics&period; However&comma; &nbsp&semi;the most important thing is to get things working&period; It is not really about who does it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Do you wish to become a politician&quest;<&sol;strong><br>Become a politician&quest; That is not &nbsp&semi;something I have thought about&period; It is not on my list&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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