Many entrepreneurs are driven by a passion to solve societal problems. For Bamidele Idris, founder of Getjobs, his driving force is to help Nigeria reduce its high youth unemployment rate.
Through his entrepreneurial skills programme, Bamidele established www.Getjobs.ng – a platform that train, mentor and connect professions with new job opportunities.
He was inspired to establish the business in 2017 owing to a personal experience. Bamidele who was opportune to work with top firms in the food and beverage industry, says job most seekers hardly impress employers despite having the required qualifications.
“At a time during my career, I observed that many lacked useful, meaningful and requisite information that potential employers are looking for in applicants,” he says.
“I observed job seekers hardly impress them even if they are sometimes qualified academically. Another thing lacking was job referrals to individuals with special skills,” he recounts.
To change this narrative and help job seekers advance in their perspective careers, he established Getjobs.
“My background as a chartered mechanical engineer with about 20 years’ experience that spreads across the oil and gas as well FMCG industry provided me the needed leverage in doing this work with relative ease,” he notes.
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On what the business is doing differently from other recruiting and training platforms, he says his organisation does not take advantage of the unemployed as it is a non-profit business.
“Getjobs’ is CSR based on passion and desire by a group of established professionals who want to support the unemployed to secure their dream jobs,” he says.
“We have commenced partnering with professional bodies to train individuals and groups on the art of ‘CV’ writing, interview tips, and skills acquisition.”
Since starting, the business has successfully helped over 400 job seekers secure jobs with a post on its platforms and referrals.
“Getjobs’ has documented over 400 job successes via our platform posts and referrals. If you look at dependants of these success stories of say three dependants per person, that translates to 1200 lives touched. That’s the joy for me. This is self-actualization for me,” he explains.
“In a society where we have a high number of people with questionable character and fraudsters, we stand out as being transparent.”
“We are currently about 20,000 on our telegram messenger platform and no applicant has been charged a single kobo or any form of gratification for job placement.”
Speaking on factors contributing to the country’s high unemployment rate, Bamidele says poor quality education, lack of critical skills, corruption, nepotism and tribalism are major factors driving youth unemployment in the country.
He urges the government to reform the country’s educational system and provide enabling environment to attract investments from the private sector to spur growth and job creation.
He also calls on the government to bridge infrastructural gaps to drive down entrepreneurs’ production costs.
On the organization’s plans, he says Getjobs plans to hold a Career Fair in conjunction with the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Ikeja Branch on January 15, 2022, at Plot 32 Oba Ogunji Road, Besides Forte Oil Filling Station, via Pen Cinema, Ogba Rd, Agege in the short run.
According to him, the event seeks to bring applicants and potential employers together.
“At ‘Getjobs’ 2022 fair which is coming on 15th of January, we have networking opportunities with prospective employers, live sessions on writing CV’s, preparing for interviews, industry exposures, job opportunities and on-site interviews.”
“We will be having great speakers, managing directors of companies, HR’s and Industry Experts who will be taking all the necessary the various sessions towards not just having jobs but also sustaining jobs,” he says.
He notes that some organizations have given assurance of on-the-spot jobs to talents that suit their needs.
