Firm partners Indian company on vocational training for graduates

An educational body, the Educational Advancement Centre, EAC has teamed up with a renowned Indian firm to provide affordable and quality vocational training for young school leavers in Nigeria to make them employable.

This is as Nigeria’s unemployment rate remains on the upward trend, while employers and recruiters continue to complain of unavailability of labour. They lament that the millions of job seekers available do not have applicable skills for the available jobs. Outsourcing and hiring of foreign hands then becomes the practice in a country where a vast majority of its youths are without jobs.

It is to bridge this skills gap that Educational Advancement Centre (EAC), Ibadan, decided to bring Indian firm, Orion Edutech, to Nigeria, to provide quality and affordable vocational training to students of the centre as well as youths in general.

According to the Director of EAC, Mr Muyiwa Bamgbose, who spoke at the launch of the collaborative programme at the company’s Headquarters in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, last weekend, Nigeria is in desperate need of an effective vocational skills system, because skills development and acquisition have been relegated to the background in the past and these have led to the present unfortunate situation where graduates show up on the door steps of potential employers, without the requisite skills.

He said: ‘’You see a newly built house and find out that the plumbing work is terribly done. Or you see the mechanic doing trial and error on your car. That’s why I concluded that Nigeria needs a vocational skills programme’’.

The Oyo state governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, who was represented at the occasion, by the Executive Secretary of the Bureau for Investments Promotion and Public Private Partnerships, Yinka Fatoki. Ajimobi, stated that the firm is coming at the right time.

He also commended EAC director, Bamgbose, for the initiative and stated that the presence of the programme in the state coincides with the government’s current drive to encourage self employment and entrepreneurship as ways out of unemployment.

He added that the government was ready to welcome graduates of the EAC-Orion Edutech programme to explore its (government’s) self employment funding programmes.

Ajimobi said; ’’ Part of what the state government is doing to encourage self employment is the creation of ‘Agri Oyo’ progrmme to encourage Agriculture. Also the government has created a N2 billion window for SMEs in conjunction with the CBN and another N1billion funding window with the Bank of Industry to support
manufacturing-related enterprises. So, graduates of this programme will be welcome to tap into these windows’’.

Bamgbose explained that his visits to India have opened his eyes to how much a nation can develop just with a youth population with the right skills. According to him, Orion’s input into vocational skills training in the country is the type that Nigeria needs.

According to the Coordinator of the programme, Rohit Venaik, wo came form India for the launch, Orion Edutech’s programme is run all the way from India, but the best part is that online learning is the firm’s greatest strength, which he said has helped it made deep penetration in India and countries across South East Asia and Africa with over 250 state-of-the-art training and counseling centres in these countries.

In the words of Rohit Venaik, Head Global Alliance of the firm, Orion’s methods combine traditional and modern teaching methods which include: Computer Based Training; Blended training through Learning Management System (LMS) and face to face learning; Live Instructor Led Online Training on Desktops, laptops, tablets and Smart devices; E-learning and M learning; and Educational e-governance

Venaik explained that apart from teaching the actual skills, they equip the students with three other skills – Domain Knowledge (knowledge of the industry interested in), people skills and industry experience, adding that the online teaching method is very effective.

as the students learn through direct on-line communication with their tutors as well as videos for demonstration. He also said that offline materials are also provided in cases of internet network failures or fluctuations.

Venaik tol Guardian that the courses are as low as $200 depending on the kind of training compared to some others international training that are as high as $1000, and he advised students to cash in on the opportunity and devote a fraction of the time they spend on social media in learning some skills.

Some of the programmes available in Orion include Mobile phones and computer repairing, Hotel and Hospitality Management, Beauty and Wellness, Apparel Manufacturing and Design, IT/ITES/Computing and Networking, BPO Training and Retail Management, Nursing and a host of others.

Soft Skills are also available. These skills are the ones that help you keep the job. They include 21stCentury Skills, Behavious Taining, Leadership and English Communication.

The training involves live lectures from eminent professors from India, USA and Canada’; international placement assistance; opportunities for internships, 24/7 dedicated call centre helpline from India and certifications from diploma all the way to PhD level.