During one of the breakout sessions at the recently held Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) Employment Summit, Tomi Otudeko, head, innovation and sustainability, Honeywell Group, a panelist, while speaking on the theme, “Jobs for the Future: Leveraging Technology for Job Creation”, reiterated the need for continuous upskilling of the workforce as technology presents new opportunities and also leads to new ways of doing existing jobs.
According to Otudeko, “the best way of ensuring that the workforce of an organisation does not become redundant in the advent of artificial intelligence and machine learning is that there should be adequate training for the changes to come”.
Illustrating her position through the operations of Honeywell Flour Mills Plc. a Honeywell Group Company, she noted that, “Our processes are increasingly automated and this has led to a change in the expectation from our millers. Our milling staff are continuously being trained and have adapted to these changes, working seamlessly with processes that a driven by technology”
“Today’s leading organisations are deploying solutions that will automate their business, reduce turnaround time and make business delivery consistent. The workforce needs to be willing to learn and be innovative in their value addition to their organisations. Embracing technology gives room for people to learn new skills”, she added.
It was agreed at the session that there is a need for a change in our education system to ensure it provides the requisite skills (both technology and soft skills) needed by the next generation. Organisations also need to change their business models so as to stay competitive for the future as skills are evolving at an accelerated rate.
Other panelists at the session include, Lars Johannisson, country manager, Tek Expert; Olufemi Osinubi, partner, experience centre & emerging technologies, PwC; Nkem Begho, managing director, Future Software Resources Limited.
Last year, Honeywell Group partnered with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) to aid youth in Lagos State acquire relevant skills required to compete in today’s technology driven, global marketplace.
The Talent Development Programme, which runs under LSETF’s Lagos Innovates Programme, provides student loans that covers up to 80 percent of training cost for beneficiaries, who are then trained by any of LSETF training partners, for up to three months. Some of the courses offered are Full Stack Development with JavaScript (React JS, NodeJs, Express and Mongo DB + API Development), Full Stack Development for Mobile Applications (React Native, API Development), Python Programming for Web and Data Science. (PYTHON OOP, DJANGO & Data Science, and Frontend Design & Engineering: (UI/UX, HTML, CSS, ES6 & React JS). The first set of beneficiaries are due to complete their training courses in February 2020, while applications for new loans will be opening in the coming weeks.
Jumoke Akiyode-Lawanson
