The reality of the growing divide between education and industry in Nigeria and consequently, Africa is one that majority of the public will rather ignore than attempt to address.
Approximately 55% of all graduates from Nigerian universities complete their education with a 2.2 CGPA and below. This automatically means that there are certain jobs they cannot get and certain companies they cannot work for regardless of how smart they may actually be or the reasons for their grade (Missing script, illness during exams, financial instability etc.).
Employability insights have shown that the average Nigerian graduate spends the first 2-3 years of their professional lives learning “How to work”, rather than working. The trend exists, primarily because the current educational system does not empower students with industry-focused skills such as basic professional writing and documentation, basic corporate finance, presentation and negotiation abilities, to mention a few. This is also not to forget the millions of working-class professionals who are in careers they neither enjoy nor have interests for but stick with them regardless, just because of the course they graduated in or what they could get out of the labour market.
This Saturday the 12th of August 2017, these issues and more will be discussed by a group of professionals who have risen above the limits of their university degrees and have recorded significant results in completely different fields of expertise. The event, themed “BEYOND A DEGREE” is set to become Africa’s Largest Conversation on Education and Industry. Its singular objective is to bridge the growing divide between education and industry in Africa through advocacy, technology and tool-based learning.
The initiative is led by Cyrus Agbo, a graduate of Biochemistry who successfully transitioned first into Public Relations management and now Digital Marketing as the head of Strategy in one of West Africa’s biggest digital marketing organisations.
Other speakers to be featured at the event include former beauty queen and lawyer turned Image Consultant, Ifeoma Williams, Paul Okeugo, the co-founder and COO of Chocolate City Music, Jennifer Onyebuagu, the enterprise business manager at Cellulant Nigeria and John Obidi, former Future Awards nominee and founder of SmartBcamp.
Further details below. To register for FREE, visit www.beyondadegree.com/register.
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