For many graduates, getting a job after school is an uphill task. But Sterling Bank is doing something to help them. Through its Get Ready for Work (GRFW) concert, it is grooming graduates to get good jobs or become job creators. COLLINS NWEZE writes.
The transition from school to work is difficult for many graduates. To address this gap, a bank is grooming graduates to become self-employed, or get the right skills to secure their dream jobs.
Sterling Bank is changing the mindset of graduates towards entrepreneurship. It is equipping them with skills to bridge the gap between employee expectations and employer requirements. The bank’s ‘Get Ready for Work’(GRFW) Concert, which holds yearly, is one of its initiatives to achieve this objective.
At the event, held last week in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, over 2,500 graduates listened to life and career coaches on what it takes to either become entrepreneurs or get hired by reputable firms.
Its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Abubakar Suleiman, said the concert was conceived to help the bank actualise its corporate social responsibility drive in the education sector. It addressed undergraduates, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and fresh graduates on getting their careers built on a solid foundation.
Suleiman said the bank discovered that many youngsters, who secured employment after school cannot relate with their colleagues, through emails or make presentations when the need arises.
He said the exercise is a way of bridging the skills gap in the employment market, adding that the concert has changed the mindset of graduates towards entrepreneurship by encouraging them to start their business rather than seeking employment.
Suleiman said the concert would be held quarterly to project Sterling Bank as a brand that believes in youth entrepreneurs, and willing to catch them young and project them to the next level in their businesses.
“The concert will be moved round states across the country to increase participation and reduce a common place factor,” he said.
Leadership, Effectiveness, Accountability and Professionalism (LEAP) Africa Executive Director Iyadunni Olubode said the non-governmental organisation was excited to be part of the concert. She said the exercise was a sustainability programme, which the lender should continue to promote.
She advised job seekers to pursue areas of passion and competence rather than high salary. She said the exercise would also enable participants change their mindset towards their contribution in the workplace rather than what they will benefit.
Olubode said the programme would prepare the minds of “our youths on challenges in the workplace and help instill in them the confidence to communicate and relate with their colleagues.”
Managing Director, Frontiers, Muyiwa Afolabi said the programme would transform the lives of the youth and change their mindset about their future.
He said: “The mindset of an average youth when going to school to acquire degrees is to finish his programme and join an institution that will give him the best pay that would guarantee his future.
Sterling Bank through this programme is bound to change this mindset to that of being entrepreneurs. Those employed will also begin to think of what they can give back to their companies and not what they stand to gain.”
He said Nigeria’s vibrant youths present an enormous opportunity, particularly now that populations across the world are aging rapidly.
“Youths not only need jobs, but also need to create them. Nigeria’s growing labour force can be an asset in the global market place. Realising this brighter vision for Nigeria’s future would require a clearer understanding of how to benefit from this asset,” he said.
Sterling Bank’s Group Head, Strategy and Communication, Shina Atilola said the high unemployment rate was the primary reason for the concert.
Co-founder of Jobberman Olalekan Olude told the story of how he and two other friends founded the firm five years ago while still in school.
“We were in school. It was during an industrial strike just like this. We decided to maximise the strike. Facebook had just come out then. We decided to do something online. We selected from movies, music and jobs but we settled for jobs.”
Olude challenged the participants to become job creators, saying: “What if there are no jobs. What I have realised is that what it takes to get a job is what it takes to set up a successful company, what you need is to have a dream; be yourselves and learn to execute your every plan,” he said.
Jobberman Managing Director, Awoyemi Opeyemi taught the participants how to write a good curriculum vitae (CV) and develop right skills for securing their dream jobs.
The youth were also entertained by musicians like Sean Tizzle, Seyi Shay and Yetunde Omo Ibadan.
According to the World Bank, with more than half of sub-Saharan Africa’s population now under the age of 25, and as many as 11 million young Africans expected to join the labor market every year for the next decade. This, it said, will be creating millions of productive, well-paying jobs needed to boost economic growth.
The bank also said the exercise would significantly cut poverty, and create shared prosperity in Africa.
The World Bank said while the modern wage sector is growing very fast in some countries, it cannot create enough jobs to meet the youth employment challenge now preoccupying governments in every corner of the continent.
World Bank Vice President for Africa Makhtar Diop said attracting investment into large enterprises that create wage jobs in the mainstream ‘formal’ economy was critical, but it is only part of the solution to Africa’s youth employment challenge.
Lead Economist at the World Bank Deon Filmer said for the millions of young people who are just surviving in the hidden ‘informal’ sector, they will need greater access to credit to thrive. This will be a game-changer for entrepreneurs who will prosper as African economies grow, in close cooperation with the private sector.
He said programmes that help young people acquire a range of complementary skills are very promising.
“Governments can approach the youth employment challenge in two important ways – by helping to improve the business environment to spark more private investment, and also by investing more in young people’s skills to create brighter life prospects for them,” he said.
