“BREAK THE JINX OF UNEMPLOYABILITY,” NIGERIAN STUDENTS CHALLENGED AS UNINIGER ORIENTATES STUDENTS

(By Alex Uzoigwe)

   Apparently irked by the seemingly unemployibility syndrome among Nigerian university graduates on account of skills deficiency, a renowned LifeCoach, Youth Development Consultant and Sociopolitical Analyst, Larry Oguego, has challenged Nigerian students to strive to add more value to themselves by acquiring extra relevant skills.
     He encouraged the students that irrespective of their academic trainings, they should apprentice themselves adequately in their chosen careers, explaining that there were jobs in Nigeria, but expressed worries that there were unemployable graduates all over the country.
        Larry Oguego made the challenging revelation in Onitsha, Anambra State, recently in an one-hour seminar he delivered during the orientation programme organised by the University on the Niger (UNINIGER) for its new students.
        He had in the lecture which he tagged, "Positioning Yourself for Successful Career", advised the students to endeavour to acquire what he described as "life skills" which he said were not academic skills, but without which he said they might not go too far.
     Among such skills, according to him, is to learn how to work within a team, "When you understand team spirit, it's a huge skill, when you have interpersonal relationships and communication skills, it's a huge skill", he explained.
      Revealing some labour-market secrets to Nigerian undergraduates in general, Larry Oguego, said, "There are things employers of labour are looking for now. They are not just looking for the person who can solve the problems; they are looking for the person who can solve the problems while working with other stakeholders in that same industry. 
    "They are not looking for somebody who will be isolated. We are living in a world where everything is done in a team . They are looking for people who have these capacities to get this done for the overall good of the company. So you need life skills. Because you live with people, you must have life skills", he added.
     He had while further underscoring the need for acquisition of relevant skills by the students reminded them that most of them might not be famous as a result of what academic courses they studied but because of the life skills they acquired.
    The guest speaker gave the students an instance with one Roger Bannister who he said was a neurosurgeon, but rather made world fame in athletics by running one mile race in less than four minutes.
     "So, while it is good to study, and you must study, you must ask yourself, "Are there other skills I carry from which the world can benefit?" he told them, saying that it was good they understood who they were, and not just come to university, study and go away without discovering who they were, "This is the best time to discover who you are, and not when you are out of school", he urged them.

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