The Youth and Young Adults Global Worldwide, part of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), has launched the much-anticipated Season 2 of its International Shift Talent Hunt.
The audition and award event kicked off on September 23 and will continue until October 5, 2024, at Redemption Camp.
Nollywood actress and judge, Chioma Ifemeludike emphasised the importance of organizing programs like this to discover and nurture talent, urging for a supportive environment to help individuals grow and contribute meaningfully.
“Programmes like this are important because they help to, firstly, discover the talents and, secondly, create a platform for them, a platform to empower. Because it’s one thing to discover them, it’s another thing to groom them and give them an enabling environment where their talents would be useful to them and the society at large”, she said.
Pastor of Ambassadors Youth Church, Asaba, Delta State, and aviation security officer with Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Bamigboye Adekoyejo urged the government to invest in talent discovery and development by organizing programs like SHIFT.
He also advised the contestants to be versatile and leverage the use of social media, noting that it provides greater good to their careers.
“The importance of social media, especially in this present world where we are so conspicuous cannot be overemphasized, it gets to all the nooks and crannies of the world.
“As we are just here in the four walls of this building, whatever we do here, they can see it in Papua New Guinea, they can see it in Brazil, they can see it in the U.S., and they can see it everywhere. So, social media is a tool that I think the Holy Spirit himself invented to be used in this modern-day world for the gospel and everything we are doing to be propagated and shown all around the world. So, for us to be known, we must leverage the power of social media.”
Gospel artist, Paul Nams advised parents to be essential in the talent development of their children, he said today’s parents are more concerned with training their kids to become successful in a particular career neglecting their in-born talents.
“It’s very, very important for parents to, you know, when raising a child, to know the gifting of the child. And when you know the gifting of the child, it helps you to train the child in the direct direction where the child should go.
“But today, the parents we have, most of the parents we have, we just want children to become doctors, lawyers, because that is what we feel they’re going to make it in life. But that’s not the truth. When you’re able to discover the passion of a child, channel the child to that very passion, and you discover that not long from then, the child becomes a great child. All right you mentioned earlier that you’re a gospel artist so um this is more of a Christian um congregation where talents have been unlocked.”
The International Shift Talent Hunt being powered by RCCG Youth is set to identify, harness, and promote dedicated Christians with talents, ensuring dedicated Christians with talent are given a platform.
Speaking with the International Director for the International Shift Talent Hunt, Engineer Steve Oze, he said the International Shift Talent Hunt season 2 is a part of the Youth Convention-themed Dominion adding that the program.
“What we do is to bridge the gap of talent and opportunity, there’s this saying that opportunities are all over the place, skills are all over the place but opportunities and skills need to be connected and that’s what we So currently what we are doing right now, this is a vision of the church and to the glory of God this is rebranded, it’s called SHIFT, alright, so this is a rebranded SHIFT.
Oze further added that the talent hunt has been remodelled and that an academy has been established to train talented Nigerians in different areas of career building and management.
“We have converted International SHIFT talent into what we call International SHIFT Academy, for the past six months we’ve been training them, teaching them, not just in music, not just in drama, not just in unusual creativity but on social media, because they need to know the world has gone global, so they need to know how to grow, grow themselves, market their skills digitally, because the world is digital right now.
The body called on the government, private bodies, and other organizations to support the initiative and bring the realities of these talents into the limelight.
“We need sponsorships, we need corporate bodies to be part of this, especially the financial sector these people are talented and gifted individuals and it’s important they also become your customers well imagine having over 500 to one thousand one thousand customers base as well so we need sponsorship we need to drive this vision for this youth.
“I’m calling on the nation I’m calling on everyone people who have a vision to empower the youth please come forward, particularly the dedicated Christians we want this to be we want this international shift to be a successful Christian reality show so that is what we are doing right now these children these youths they are slipping away from the Christian world they are slipping away into the secular but want to give them there is what china best to match up or to get a standard applicable.”
