The University of Ibadan has organised a two day masterclass on “employability, workplace readiness and entrepreneurial skills for final year students on first class and second class upper last Saturday and Sunday, November, 2019 at the Otumba Subomi Balogun Conference Centre, UI Hotels.

The programme which was tagged, “B eyond Smart”, featured ten resource persons and was declared opened by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Abel Olayinka Idowu. In his opening remark, the VC tasked the participants to maximize the golden opportunity given to them, stressing that they were considered for the training in recognition of their academic excellence. He noted that despite being considered as excellent in their academics, the realities in the labour market were beyond being smart, hence they must strive towards equipping themselves with the needed skills that would qualify them for jobs after graduating.

In her opening presentation, the founder and executive director of Monitoring Assistance for Youth and Entrepreneur Initiative, Barrister Eden Dorothy Ossai, who spoke on “Developing Self, Skills and Knowledge, Career Awareness” charged the participants to become aware of who they are and develop personal knowledge of “self”, competence, knowledge of the industry, among others so as to make them fit into a life outside of the university walls.

In her separate lecture on ” developing Habits of emotional intelligence, the speaker, Jumoke Aleoke-Malachi charged the participants to work towards becoming emotionally intelligent , stressing that poor handling of emotions can cause problems to people who are going newly into the labour market.

In the same vein, Mr Toyin Obaniyi in his presentation, entitled, “Developing Career Awareness” challenge the participants to explore the labour market in order to be fully aware of the nature and trends in the economy so as to position themselves well for jobs. Earlier Mr Babatunde who spoke on employability and workplace readiness called on the students to be wary of the challenging employment route, stressing that “nobody is promising them jobs”, hence they must very competitive by developing self-management skills, good communication skills, imbibe teamwork among others, to land themselves their dream jobs.

Mr Harry and Tunde Onakoya spoke on developing multiple streams of income and changing nature of workplace while day two featured Dorothy Tunde Ajala and Toluwase Olaniyan who spoke on leadership competence and getting your first job. Toluwase took the participants through a practical session on CV, cover letter writing and job hunt, scaling assessment, and acing interview.

The last session featured Mr Ver Ikeseh and Seun Mamiro who anchored “Building Personal Brand” and “Becoming your own boss,  ” How to start your passion business ” reflectively.

In her closing remark, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research, innovations and strategic partnership,  Prof. Olanike K. Adeyemo, thanked the facilitators for enriching the participants with their knowledge, and promised to facilitate the training of 70 selected students by First Bank PLC , at the First Bank Academy Lagos, as part of the forthcoming career fair.

On while the programme was not opened to the generality of all final year students, the DVC explained that the reason was to encourage merits:

 “Your generation need to know that only God is an equal opportunity provider, the real world does not reward everyone equally; you get extra when you put in extra (why I am doing it this way)”, she explicated.