Dignitaries were excited last week Friday at the official opening ceremony of Workplace Centre Limited, a state-of-the-art skills acquisition centre which is out to enhance employability of Nigerian graduates as well as provide entrepreneurial skills training and HR process intervention services to individuals and corporate organisations in the country. The newly commissioned centre has six departments with each segment aiming to bridge the gap that exists in the workplace. The sections are the graduate workplace skills acquisition, graduate entrepreneurial skills acquisition, HR outsourcing and consulting services segment, executive capacity building services, ICT skills development and E-learning centres.
Notable personalities at the event include Moji Olateru-Olagbegi, managing partner ICT; Bola Adeniyi-Taiwo(Managing Partner HR), Olusola Oworu, the commissioner for commerce and Industry in Lagos State; the minister of communication technology, who was represented by her special assistant, Ola Ogunneye; Odein Ajumogobia, former minister of petroleum resources; and Benjamin Akande, professor of economics and dean George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology, Webster University, Missouri, United State of America.
In his keynote address, Akande pointed to the over 600,000 graduates that our tertiary institutions produce annually majority of whom lack social and entrepreneurial skills. As a result, some of the graduates are not employable and that explains why the level of unemployment is so high in the country. Worse still, that is the reason we are yet to have a country of our dream. He said that the coming on board of institution such as Workplace Centre Limited was long overdue. He supported the mission of the founders of the centre to make Nigerians more productive. “University degrees are necessary but not sufficient. Graduates must have entrepreneurial and social skills to be able to create what does not exist. Therefore, the essence of this institution is to empower, challenge and to raise Nigerian youths up in order to make them better”, Akande submits.
In his contribution, Ola Ogunneye said his presence at the event is because his boss, the minister of communication technology, does not support mediocrity. “Indirectly, we have worked with some of the management team in charge of this institution, and their watchword is excellence.” He further stated that the centre is targeted towards capacity building to bridge the gap in the nation’s educational system.
Moji Olateru-Olagbegi said the centre is open to all professional institutions and bodies which engage in mentorship and training.
