The Lagos Business School (LBS) has concluded its two-day grooming programme for the 50 young Nigerians selected for the 2024 edition of the Young Talents Programme (YTP) held recently at the institute’s Lekki-Lagos campus.
Uzo Uchenna, a professor of marketing at LBS disclosed to BusinessDay that the Young Talents Programme was designed to mentor young leaders and empower Nigeria’s next generation of talents who will become knowledge transferees.
“We came up with YTP as a mentorship programme to guide young talented people to become leaders that will support Nigeria, in particular, and Africa at large,” he said.
“The number one goal of LBS is to inspire youngsters to become academics that can become leaders in practice and academic, transferring knowledge,” he adds.
He explained that YTP was started by LBS nine years ago because the institution discovered that there were many talented youth looking for career and education support to optimise their talents; however, he said that the needed support was not there for them.
Uchenna reiterated that 50 participants will be allowed to apply for the LBS academy scholarship where they will be mentored to become transformative leaders who will in turn transfer the knowledge gained to others.
“At the end of the programme, we will be selecting some of them to join our management academy, a two-year programme expected to prepare them to become future lecturers in LBS or anywhere else in the world,” he said.
However, he explained that interested youngsters will have to apply to join the academy and go through the admissions process and that it is not automatic.
He revealed that the 50 youths selected out of the 548 people who applied across the country were not more than 30 years old and that they were thoroughly screened via predetermined benchmarks such as being a graduate with at least second-class upper, having high leadership potential and having an interest in becoming lecturers in future, among others.
Chris Ogbechie, the dean of Lagos Business School, who was represented by Uche Attoh, head of the Department of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management in his address urged the participants to brace up for the new world of work and employment.
“We are in a new world of work and employment, the world of work today is characterised by talents. There will be a war for talent as a result of the new developments. What will operate in this age is the law of excluded middle, you’re either a talent, and succeed or you’re not,” he said.
Sandeep Sham, the head of learning and development at Tolaram Group, Nigeria, one of the sponsors of the programme told BusinessDay that the company identified with the programme to give enabling platforms to young talents.
It’s one of our ways to ensure that good talents get a platform to grow. Our company also runs a graduate training programme for Nigeria’s bright minds
“We go to the best schools, recruit bright minds and groom them in two years to become great managers,” he said.
One of the highlights of the event was an innovation contest by four groups.
Abiola Ogunleye, one of the participants expressed his delight for being among the 50 youth selected for the 2024 YTP.
“I feel privileged to be selected, and it’s an encouragement that there is still a place at the top for the youth in Nigeria if we’re hard-working, and uphold good values,” he said.
Ogunleye, a member of the team that won first position in a four-man -group contest said he one of his gains at the programme was learning about values such as integrity, service to humanity, mutual respect and professionalism which are key to succeeding in one’s chosen career.
The team presented an innovation on AI policy/AI-driven solution with an impact on stakeholders of Alaro City.
Olarenwaju Ogunye, the team leader said he was excited to have led the group to winning the contest.
“I feel excited, it was not easy. I appreciate my team members for their cooperation and support,” he said.
Ogunye disclosed that the greatest obstacle was trying to get everyone from across the country to be part of it.
“Trying to get everyone together was our greatest challenge, but we navigated the murky water through our success-driven instinct,” he noted.
A total of 548 youth across the country applied for the 2024 Young Talents Programme which was rolled out earlier in the year by Lagos Business School.
Some of the sponsors are Alaro City, Tolaram Group Nigeria, and Multipro,, among others.
