The greatest challenge facing the Nigerian youth today is lack of skills required by the industries. Such a syndrome is often termed as unemployability.
Year after year, thousands of youths graduate out of higher institutions into the labour market, majority of who go without jobs for months and even for years. When some of them are lucky to secure one, it is for menial jobs, hence leading to under-employment.
Dr.(Mrs.) Oby Ezekwelisi, one of the nation’s former ministers for education said on October 28, 2006 during the session on education reform that 70 percent of the Nigerian youths are either unemployed, underemployed or unemployable and between 2000-2009 the country would have succeeded in training 10 million highly skilled criminals if nothing is done. We can surmise that the "Holy Grail called Employment" is elusive to the Nigerian youth and clearly spells doom for the country.
It is this anomaly that New Horizons, the foremost IT Training institution in the world set as a challenge for itself to reduce and even remove.
To achieve this, New Horizons organized a job fair at the National Stadium which was attended by well over 10,000 people from all parts of the country. The purpose of the fair was to provide individuals with critical information from renowned industry experts on how to become employable thereby living a successful and productive professional life. Participants were surprised at the simple tasks they required to transform their lives.
Presentations at the event were given by resource persons from reputable IT companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, EC-Council unveiling to listeners the limitless opportunities abound in the IT industry and the right steps to take in acquiring the required skills to claim these opportunities. Participants also were availed the opportunity of meeting with representatives of renowned consulting firms from Michael Stevens and IRIS Consulting, as they were taught the necessary techniques involved in the writing of resumes, and the art of scaling through employment tests and interviews organized by organizations or their agencies.
At the end of the event, over 6,000 people had registered to upgrade their skills in fields such as e-business-Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management; IT Security; Cisco-CCNA, CCNP, CCSP, CCVP; Oracle-OCA, OCP; Microsoft-MCSA, MCSD, MCSE.
Although the event was concluded some weeks back, the effects have continued to linger as individuals that benefited from the event have been coming forward with testimonies of how the event has impacted on their lives.
Due to the opportunity offered participants by the platform, some of them had interactions with the consulting firms and as a result many were called for tests and interviews as they had learnt how to better package themselves. The good news is that some of them got jobs. An example is Ms. Lovely Ellufere, who said the job fair changed her life for the better. A great majority also have since focused their energies on acquiring industry relevant skills to enhance their opportunities in the labour market.
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