Students of PAULESI Ibadan benefit from career development training initiatives
AKINWALE ABOLUWADE
Students of the Pan African University Life and Earth Sciences Institute (including Health and Agriculture), who participated in the CV Career Fare held at the institute’s permanent site, University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, have lauded the management of PAULESI over what they described as ‘a very enriching programme,’ targeted at increasing their chances of bing employable.
According to Mr Victor Oyelade, the communication manager (the PAULESI Incubation Center of Excellence), the programme, held on Tuesday, November 30, was targeted at improving the stakes of participants in the labour market by solving some of the major challenges faced during job interviews.
Nkounou Yawovi Félix, one of the participants, described the programme as highly beneficial and insightful.
Félix, a Togolese, BSc holder in Agricultural Economics, currently pursuing his Masters in Environmental Management at the institute, said that “I got the basic things to look out for. If one is being called for an interview, we were thought how to get prepared.
“We also had the opportunity to discuss with entrepreneurs of some businesses. We had opportunity to talk about the circular economy. From this, I got exposed to different business opportunities that are available from circular economy.”
Another participant, Dlamini Samkelisiwe Phetsile from Eswatini, who is pursuing MSc in Environmental Management after a first degree in Agricultural Economics and Agro Business Management, described the training as being useful at this point in time as she rounded off her studies.
Phetsile said that as a job seeker, “Most of the things I had been writing in my CV were not good which might be one of the factors that made me not to get a job for a very long time.
“Now I have gained a lot of information. I can say that I can go back and write a proper CV that can make me get a job. I also know at interview, things that I should not do and things that I should do. Everyone needs this; it would be so helpful.
“The training on circular economy was also so insightful. For me, as an environmentalist, it was an eye opener. I saw a lot of things which I didn’t know. It makes me to know how we can re-use or recycle things in order to maintain our environment and sustain it for the future generation. I wish we can have more programmes like this.”
Aili Nauyele Nghiningwa from Namibia said, “I am doing a Masters degree in Environmental Management. The first session of the training is how I can improve on my CV. They took us on how we can use a better CV format that is less clumsy.
“When it comes to interview preparation, I have also learnt about researching the employees so that during interview, I can be able to fit in. When you entre the interview room, you should feel like a part of the panel already. That is one of the things that is new to me.”
On the second session, which is the circular economy, Nghiningwa said, “I got more insight. In life, you think you know so much but by attending seminars like this, you will pick just one thing that is missing in your life. I got so much that I can apply in terms of recycling and keeping our environment clean. This has opened my mind.”
Many of the participants were miffed to learn that the plastic waste being generated from bad fishing net is more than the ones being generated within the towns and cities.
Another student of the institute, Ule Phiri (from Malawi) undertaking an MSc in Reproductive Health Sciences, lauded the training as expository with learning insights on emerging career opportunities in the healthcare sector.
Olumide Ayodele Project Assistant at the Center said that the training was to better the opportunities of the participants in the labour market.
He explained, “The idea is to update how well they write their CV and show them the things that recruiters are looking for. What we hope to achieve is to let the students know that the experience of learning at Pan African University worths the while.
“The students we have here are in the Environmental Health sector, the Agric sector and the health sector and the trainings have been tailored to accommodate students from these tracks. We got facilitators who are successful enterpreneurs in these fields to address the students in the various sectors.We have Mr Tunde Onakoya from AutoClinic; we have Mr Seyi Alabi from Crop to Cash; and we have a Team Lead from Design Health Practice at CcHUB.”
The event was immediately followed by a Design Challenge to extract fresh, Pan-African, Scale-able ideas from the community that will address pressing developmental issues on the continent.
The Design Challenge is currently underway with winners to be announced in a couple of days.
The PAULESI Incubation Center of Excellence is currently operationalized by Co-Creation Hub – Africa’s largest Innovation Centre.
