Lonadek Inc., a firm which has spent the last 13 years organising the Vision 2020 Youth Empowerment and Restoration Initiative (YERI) to raise awareness about careers in oil and gas and technology, is to focus on Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) for girls next.
Speaking at the closing of the 13th edition of the Vision 2020: YERI Summer Camp Programme, a five-day initiative which ended last Friday at the Cedar STEM & Entrepreneurship Hub (CSEH), Jibowu, founder and principal consultant, Lonadek inc, Dr Ibilola Amao, said the focus on STEM was aimed at increasing the number of women and girls working in STEM-based industries.
She said: “We want to focus on women and girls in stem and we also want to look at women in entrepreneurship. We realised that not enough women are running businesses in energy, power, infrastructure, oil and gas; and I really would hate to be just one of many women who have run a business.
Read Also: Glo partners firm on empowerment of Girl Child
“I think we need to encourage more women in the male dominated areas to run businesses so we can get a better country.”
Speaking on why Vision 2020 YERI was initiated, Dr Amao said she worked on the feedback she got from the field.
“As we engage with our clients and customers in our industry, we pick from the issues and challenges we are faced with and then we try and translate it with what are the jobs for the future, what do we need to sensitize children in school about, what do we need to begin to prepare their minds for and then we expose them to this things so our themes are informed by the issues and challenges we see primarily in the oil and gas industry or in the energy, power and infrastructure industry.
During the weeklong summer camp, 31 participants from 10 secondary schools in Lagoswere exposed to classroom sessions, robotics, STEM in the society, digital marketing, renewable energy, health and safety, etc. as well as leadership skills like personal branding, etiquette.
The facilitators were experts and professionals across various industries. The students also went on a field trip to General Electric where they learnt about innovation and technology and the principle behind the 3-D Printer.
The participants were also grouped into teams to brainstorm on problems like flooding, global warming, agriculture, oil spillage, using STEM.
They learnt the 4C’s to problem solving – Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication and Collaboration.
Leave a Reply