Engineers, accountants hold career talk for Lagos, Ibadan students

IN its bid to attract young Nigerians to their profession, the Nigeria Society Of Engineers (NSE), Apapa branch recently held a career talk for students of Ifako International Schools, Lagos State.

 This was as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Tuesday also organised a career talk for about 400 pupils drawn from 20 public and private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State.

   The engineers who visited the students during their school’s career day educated them on the importance of engineering, as well as the need to choose a career in engineering.

  Technical secretary of the association, Mr. Omoefe Abokiti, who spoke at the event described engineering as a profession that open doors to many careers, adding that the engineers also take responsibility for the safety of people and the environment.

   Abokiti, who said schools serve as the basis for learning and getting informed, added that what make engineers stand out is their creativity, innovation, passion, ability to focus and always curious to getting problems solved in the community they find themselves. 

   The engineer who expatiated further with Theodore Von Karman quote that “scientists discover the world that already exists; engineers create the world that never was,” encouraged female students to explore science and engineering, adding that a diverse set of minds was needed to tackle the world’s problems. 

  “Engineering is largely missing out on women’s intelligence, intuition, creativity, and values in solving the problems we all face. This is especially important now, when unemployment is high and our economy is weak. We cannot afford to lose anyone with the technical skills to create a sustainable future, improve health, build our cyber and physical infrastructures, and enhance personal and societal security.

   “A career in Engineering will afford them (female students) the opportunity to make a difference, afford them job security, work with other talented people, do cool stuff by being the first to develop and try out new technology and have loads of options as engineers work everywhere; in big and small cities, rural communities, business offices, classrooms or research laboratories. Some even work outdoors or even in outer space.

   The financial secretary, Mrs. Bisi Anifowose, who stressed the importance of excelling in courses like mathematics, English, physics, chemistry and further mathematics for anyone thinking of a career in engineering, emphasised the need to take English as a subject seriously, because as an engineer, the art of getting your message across is a very vital part of being a successful engineer. 

   “Engineers always seek optimal solutions to problems, make judgments of, and provide explanations to their choices. Communication is an important way of learning, which helps Engineers move from novices to experts and allow them gain new professional knowledge and abilities,” she said.

  At Ibadan, President of the ICAN district there, Ganiyu Adebayo, said the purpose of the programme, which had as its theme: “Catch them young,” was to introduce accounting profession to the students at an early stage and to erase the impression that only graduates or those practising in accounting firms could become chartered accountants.

  According to him, “We want to introduce accounting profession to the children at the secondary school level. Initially, people thought that before you can become a chartered accountant, you must be a graduate. They thought you couldn’t just walk into the profession. But we are trying to prepare a short-cut for the students through the Accounting Technician Scheme (ATS), which they can start once they get their secondary school certificate.”

  He added that those who excel in the first three stages of the ATS would have the opportunity of securing admission to second year in the university.

  “We have two resource persons who shared their experiences with them and I tell you I am impressed with the responses of the pupils. We noted from the questions raised by the pupils that there were some of them in sciences class who were already considering a career in accounting.”

  One of the resource persons, Olabamiji Ogunlade, who spoke on the topic, “The Roadmap to becoming a chartered accountant,” encouraged the students to consider starting a course in ATS early.

  He said, “As an accountant, you fit into all categories of working class; so, getting a job is easier. After obtaining your secondary school certificate, ATS will make your professional journey less cumbersome and faster.”

  A lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile Ife, Prof. Taiwo Asaolu, urged the pupils to make good use of their time, warning that modern technologies like mobile telephone features, accessibility to movies via the phones and other gaming programmes had the capacity to waste their precious time.