Need to increase career path awareness among secondary school pupils has drawn Promasidor Limited into crafting Harness Your Dream programme to help in making the education system stay relevant, drive national development and industrial growth.
To reach this goal, private sector operators need to support government’s efforts to boost career awareness among secondary school students contended Olufunmilayo Onadipe, the Permanent Secretary/Tutor General, Lagos State Education District Six during the maiden edition of a career guidance workshop, organised by Promasidor Ltd at Oregun Junior High School, Lagos.
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Speaking at the event tagged ‘Harness Your Dream’, Onadipe called for a public-private sectors partnership in preparing secondary school students for the future. “I am very excited about the initiative. I am glad to know that a corporate organisation like Promasidor is thinking in this direction. We need to nurture the kids as they grow. It is about catching them young.”
“When we help them to nurture their career interests, they grow up with a clear picture of what they want to do. I am so happy with Promasidor Nigeria for this noble idea, and I pray that other companies will do a similar thing. The participants are currently in Junior Secondary School class three. What this means is that they already know exactly the subjects they will focus on in their senior classes” Onadipe added.
Anders Einarsson, the Managing Director, Promasidor Nigeria Limited, said the programme would help students to marry their passion and talents to make the right choice, adding that ‘Harness Your Dream’ targets JS3 students because of the sensitive nature of the class.
Einarsson, represented by the company’s Head of Legal/Public Relations, Andrew Enahoro said “it is a catch-them-young scheme. This implies that the young people who go through the process will have the rare opportunity of subjecting their options to a clinical test before they start learning the essential subjects required to be the best in their chosen professions.”
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The programme is an interface between students and experts who have excelled in their careers, each giving the students hands-on experience. “This is worthwhile at a time when the gap between theory and practice is widening. This will also create an opportunity for mentorship that will last for a lifetime” Einarsson said.
Adenike Oresanya, the Principal of the school, said the students left the workshop more enlightened about their career options. She was particularly happy with emerging careers such as Information and Communication Technology, which the students were exposed to.
Other careers that featured during the ‘Harness Your Dream’ session were Accounting (Business Financing and Management), Digital Marketing, Human Resource Management (Personnel Management and Talent Acquisition), and Business Management and Entrepreneurship.
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU
