Cadbury Nigeria Plc has hosted some students to A day in Cadbury, a session aimed at honing their skills for employment and building a successful career after school. WALE AJETUNMOBI reports.
Lack of requisite skills that will improve graduates’ employability is one of the factors that causes unemployment. Lack of mentoring programmes to prepare students for life after graduation also contributes to low employability among graduates.
Equipping graduates with soft skills and exposing them to workplace experience are crucial to bringing down the rate of employment. This is the objective of a graduate career scheme with the theme: A day in Cadbury, introduced by Cadbury Nigeria Plc, a subsidiary of Mondelēz International, which is aimed at sensitising students and fresh graduates on how they can have successful career after school.
Sixty-one participants, comprising students and fresh graduates selected from various parts of the country, were hosted for career mentoring at the event held at the corporate headquarters of the company in Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos.
The company’s head of Procurement for West Africa, Mr Tolu Adesalu, harped on the need for setting achievable career goals and having a quest for new skills when he engaged the participants on: Cross-functional team, experience and skills required to succeed in the business world.
To have a successful career, Adesalu said it would require an employee to have passion for the job and build a strong will in surmounting workplace obstacles, stressing that the confidence to tackle challenges and adaptability to new task would lead to job satisfaction.
He advised them to be inquisitive and never afraid to volunteer for roles outside their core skills in order to diversify their professional experiences.
He said: “The more you open and expand your career goals at your place of work, the more you have a better career. In achieving set goals, you need to know there are always obstacles you must deal with. The obstacles might appear impossible to overcome, but the necessity of the goals should be the driving force that will help you realise these goals.
“Your quest to be better and improve your skillset must never end. You must develop the culture of inquisitiveness. While you are improving on your core skills, it is necessary to also learn skill to have diversity in your career. Never be afraid to volunteer for new roles. No experience is useless.”
Adesalu also admonished the graduates to take courses that would improve their credentials.
The head of Human Resources Department, Mr Tope Philips, who spoke on Interviewing tips, emphasised the need to have “good attitude” at a workplace, saying no company would recruit people who have no character.
An applicant getting a job, he said, starts from the values the applicant projects at point of interview, pointing out that an employer only wanted people that would possess the traits in line with vision of the company.
He advised the participants to build a network of “important people” who could vouch for their competence and help them to choose good career path.
Philips said: “There are many multinational companies with different rules of recruitment. But, there is always a common ground for recruiting people to fill open positions. What employers are looking for in curriculum vitae is not the list of competences, but a line that describes that drive and passion of the applicant, which can help the company achieve its organisational goals.
“Companies have human resources mechanism that can make a fresh graduate with no experience work better, but the employee must demonstrate his passion attitude to help the company projecting its values.”
He urged the participants not to allow their careers to be driven by their superior, telling them that they could only get job satisfaction and career growth if they are in charge of their career. He also advised the graduates to be careful on the information they share on social media, noting that employers had mechanism to know the character of their potential employees through their social media engagement.
A senior staff member at Cadbury Nigeria, Ifeoma Chuks, engaged the participants on Enhancing employability skills. The company’s Financial Director, Mrs Yimika, engaged them on The importance of soft skills in the workplace.
Cadbury Nigeria’s Talent Manager, Erica Imama, said the programme was introduced in response to the inability of fresh graduates to get their dream job because of lack of requisite skills.
She said the participants were selected based on the business needs of Cadbury, adding that the training would help them secure positions in firms where their skills were required.
She said: “This programme is designed to equip the participants with employability skills by bringing them in contact with professionals with many years of experience. This will help the participants overcome workplace challenges by mentoring them to build skillset that will give them successful career in their respective fields.
“For Cadbury, the programme is not a Corporate Social Responsibility; rather, it is a way of giving back to the country where we operate. We undertake the scheme to complement the effort aimed at bringing down unemployment in the country.”
The participants described the event as “highly inspirational”, urging the firm to sustain the scheme.
Jenny Ukpai, a graduating Finance student of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), said: “I came here with no high expectation because I had attended similar workshops on career. However, this Cadbury programme turns out to be the most valuable event I have attended this year.
“I have been exposed to basic skills the business world expects from fresh graduates. Now, I have a picture of what I want to be and where I want to be after my graduation from school.”
Ewah Odianosen, a Chemical Engineering graduate of University of Benin (UNIBEN), said he learnt that loyalty remains a valuable trait to building impressive career.
“The session taken by Mr Tolu Adesalu was the most inspiring for me. He taught us that loyalty matters in building an impressive career with a company. Despite that he got so many offers elsewhere, he stayed with Cadbury in times of crisis and boom. This is a key value I am taking away from here,” Ewah said.
Also, Zainab Bada, a Mechanical Engineering graduate of Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), said: “I have just known that the leadership roles we take up in school also translate to experience we can use to get jobs. I have learnt how best to write my CV and the need to learn soft skills in addition to my core areas of competence. I am grateful to the Cadbury Nigeria for this chance opportunity to build a rewarding professional career as I prepare to launch myself into the job market.”
