At the 10-years anniversary celebration of HYT Consulting, commemorated alongside Nigeria’s 63rd Independence Day, Folusho Odegbaike, the firm’s lead Consultant revealed that Nigeria’s ‘Japa’ syndrome is no reason to cry over spilt milk, but an opportunity to step in and train those who remain with soft skills so as to increase employability in the nation.
During the duo celebration, the highly accomplished human capital management consultant with over 20 years of practical experience in various aspects of Human Capital Learning and Development, Performance Management, Customer Service, and other core Human Resources and Administration functions explained that having worked in HR for a number of years, her passion for growing people helped her find a calling as a training specialist, which eventually berthed HYT Consulting.
Odegbaike said: “We have been in business for 10 years now, even though we started pretty small like every SME. I started out of my office in another organisation because the MD of the organisation I was working for believed that I should own a business in that line. During my tenure as the head of Human Resources, I assumed responsibility for the entire HR operations and successfully undertook a comprehensive restructuring of the HR division, aligning it with best practices. This strategic overhaul played a pivotal role in guiding the company, which had a workforce of over 700 employees, to achieve its corporate objectives. HYT started to grow from there. I wouldn’t say it has been easy, but it’s been worth the trouble.”
Speaking on the company’s latest expansion into a standard training school, 10 years after, the certified SAP HCM and project management professional with a solid grasp of the Prince2 Project Management Methodology explained that she wanted to continue the vision of training for as long as she could.
Addressing the prevailing ‘Japa’ syndrome in Nigeria, Odegbaike said: “Despite the ‘Japa’, there are still a lot of young people, graduates in the country, and our focus should be bridging the gaps with fresh graduates by making them employable.
“Our major focus is to bring qualified candidates to clients. Once we train people, we deploy them and then they go on from there.”
Odegbaike holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Lagos. Additionally, she is an active member of several professional institutes, including the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM), Chartered Institute of Personnel Development U.K (CIPD), and Nigerian Institute of Training & Development (NITAD).
