Career Experts Set to Address Town-Gown Skill Gaps

Career Experts Set to Address Town-Gown Skill Gaps

Organisers have expressed readiness for the unveil ceremony of the 21st Century Skills Roadmap (21st CSR), a two-day event scheduled to hold at the University of Lagos from Thursday, November 14th to Friday, November 15th, to address town-gown skills gaps.

Hosted by Career Digest (CD) Limited, a social business enterprise, in collaboration with leading stakeholders in the education sector, the event promises to unveil fundamentals of the perennial wide-scale skills gaps between the institutions of learning and the workplace in Nigeria and across parts of Africa.

According to a statement on Friday, CD will unveil credible solution pathways to resolving the endemic problem that has spanned decades and seemingly defied solutions.

“The 21st CSR shall provide participants access to an uncommon assemblage of key relevant sector stakeholders, keen to resolve the unfortunate problem.

“The Epoch-making event which is planned as a hybrid occurrence, will host about 500 onsite and 3,000 offsite participants. It will feature activities that include keynote addresses, goodwill messages, a Big Picture presentation, panel discussions, official endorsements, Business to Business (B2B) Sessions, networking and exhibitions, among others,” it noted.

Expected participants, include academic institutions/educators, employers of labour, development institutions, policymakers including ministries, government executives at federal, state, and local government levels.

Also expected are chief executives/human resources managers of corporate organisations, the media, Non-Governmental Organisations and philanthropists, community leaders, learners, PTAs/parents & guardians.

For the first time, the problems of the skills gaps and failures by stakeholders of the continent to achieve 21st century skills will be given a comprehensive, sustainable and pragmatic approach and diagnosis.

The statement quoted the Chief Executive Officer of Career Digest, Mrs. Joy Chinwokwu, (a veteran journalist and  World Bank award-winning business development consultant), that “the Career Digest initiative is strategically guided by its Advisory Board Chairman, Emeritus Professor, Olugbemiro Jegede, Foundation Vice Chancellor, National Open University of Nigeria; former Chief Executive  of the Association of African Universities; and Chairman, TETFund Advisory Committee on Digital Literacy, Productivity and Emerging Skills.

A statement credited to Emeritus Prof. Jegede observed that “The CD initiative will indeed be very helpful in ensuring that Nigeria maximises the privileges of its recent admission into WorldSkills community (as its 89th member), by effectively positioning every stakeholder in the country to embrace emerging global skills, in real time. CD is hopeful of assisting WorldSkills Nigeria, to generate needed energy and insights to the global skills movement.”

Also keenly behind the initiative’s success, is its Advisory Board Vice-Chairman, Mr. Tim Rose,  the CEO of Growbridge Advisors Ltd UK (an international firm that provides a range of corporate advisory and training services to companies and International Donors); and who is also Chartered Director and None Executive Director of Fintech Start-up & Senior Technical Advisor on SME Donor Programmes, in London. The initiative is equally backed by other high-level advisors in the core areas of Strategy, Policies & Interventions, Content Development and Management and Study, Curriculum and Jobs.

The statement further added that the management of CD is driven by a vibrant Business Team and a colourful Editorial Board (profiling veterans and GenZ journalists.) Said Mrs. Chinwokwu, “The Editorial team is expected to give some bite to the post-event implementation plans, designed to execute its clear transformation agenda of impacting the economies of individuals, families and nations.

Vital to this initiative are the mentorship and informative programmes delivered online and onsite through the Career Digest website, www.careerdigest.com.ng and other programmes designed in partnerships with schools at different tiers of education that range from kindergarten through to primary, secondary and tertiary institutions and with employers, targeting workplace rookies.”

The Career Digest initiative is designed to empower skillful and morally upright students, youth, and women to help themselves, their families, industries, and the economy.

Among the expected outcomes is an enabled mutual training environment for the classroom and workplace and a close-knit work interface among various sector stakeholders. The initiative has been applauded by leading members of both the public and private sectors as “a timely and long-awaited social business tonic for career and curriculum reforms.”