Educational

The International Day of the African Child has been celebrated on June 16 every year since 1991; when it was first initiated by the OAU Organisation of African Unity. It honours those who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976 on that day. It also raises awareness of the continuing need for improvement of the education provided to African children.

Hundreds of Young Students were shot in the Soweto Uprising.

In Soweto, South Africa, on June 16, 1976, about ten thousand black school children marched in a column more than half a mile long, protesting the poor quality of their education and demanding their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of young students were shot, the most famous of which being Hector Pietersen. More than a hundred people were killed in the protests of the following two weeks, and more than a thousand were injured.

On June 16 every year, governments, NGOs, international organisations and other stakeholders gather to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the full realization of the rights of children in Africa. For 2014, the theme chosen returns to the roots of the movement; A child-friendly, quality, free, and compulsory education for all children in Africa.

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Happy Democracy Day Dear Nigerians!

Democracy Day is a national public holiday in Nigeria. It marks the day the military handed over power to an elected civilian government in 1999, marking the beginning of the longest continuous civilian rule since Nigeria’s independence from colonial rule in 1960. It is a tradition that has been held annually, beginning in year 2000.

Until June 6 2018, it was held annually on May 29.

With the election of General Olusegun Obasanjo as President, May 29th 1999 was the second time in Nigeria’s history that an elected civilian administration was restored after the rule of a military junta. The first time this happened was on October 21st 1979.

On June 6, 2018, the President Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigeria declared June 12 to be the new Democracy Day. 

Buhari gave his inaugural address for his second term on June 12, 2019. These were done to commemorate the democratic election of MKO Abiola on June 12, 1993, in what has been adjudged to be Nigeria’s freest and fairest elections. It was, however, wrongly cancelled by the Ibrahim Babangida Junta. MKO Abiola was later detained after he rightfully declared himself the president. Chief MKO Abiola died mysteriously after drinking tea during the negotiation of his release. He started coughing in the presence of Kofi Annan and later died in the hospital.

Thus, in June 2018, President Buhari announced that Democracy Day would move to June 12th from 2019. The view of the federal government is that the annulled general election of June 12th 1993 is a more fitting occasion for Democracy Day to represent than the events of May 1999.

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EPISODE 21: Lessons So Far

Life as a job seeker comes with different experiences and lessons. Learning from the experiences of others can save you from hard knocks in your quest to become gainfully employed.

The series; the Life of a Job Seeker, so far has highlighted 14 important life lessons from the experience of Kobi and his friends. Before we proceed to subsequent episodes, let’s reflect on the lessons so far:

Lesson 1: Do not rely on promises.

Lesson 2: Always respond to an offer whether you accept it or not.

Lesson 3: Form good networks by building meaningful relationship with people.

Lesson 4: Your connection alone might not be sufficient.

Lesson 5: No matter the situation, never consider robbery an option.

Lesson 6: Always research and validate the legitimacy of every job before applying or attending an interview

Lesson 7: Don’t just find any job, find the right one.

Lesson 8: Gambling isn’t such a nice idea. In the end, you might lose what you gain from it and more.

Lesson 9: Never be late for an interview.

Lesson 10: Never Be in a rush to start a business without a good knowledge of it.

Lesson 11: Never Give Up!

Lesson 12: Never lie on your Resume

Lesson 13: Never leave mess on your social media

Lesson 14: Soft skills, in addition to book knowledge and technical abilities, are required to keep any job.

Stay tuned and watch out for the next Episode

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Episode 20: Adapting to a New Job

While finding a new job might be difficult, adjusting to and sustaining the job can be more difficult in some instances.

Upon resuming his job role, Faruq was trained on how to handle different equipment and resources necessary to enhance his work, and he learnt very fast. However, soon he learnt that technical skills were not all he needed to succeed on the job; a lesson he learnt the hard way.

The Challenges

The first challenge he had was with meeting deadlines. As with many organizations, he was swamped with loads of assignment on daily basis that stressed the hell out of him. When faced with multiple tasks, he found it difficult to organize them, set goals and accomplish them within the stipulated time.  He found it difficult to request help from his colleagues when he needed it or even approach his subordinates to allocate jobs to them because he was more comfortable working alone.

His inability to organise duties and operate efficiently concerned him and his supervisors, as his assignments were frequently completed and submitted when they were no longer needed. To make up for his tardiness, he began working late at night and even on weekends, to the point that he had little time for himself. As a result of the poor work-life balance, he became increasingly stressed and sickened by the job.

As with many job roles, beyond the technical aspects of his job, he had other social responsibilities including, working with other teams to complete projects, interfacing with clients among others; these were another source of problems for Faruq.

He struggled with critical thinking and communication

During brainstorming sessions at work, he found it difficult to think clearly and come up with creative ideas to solve problems; and when he did have new ideas, communicating it to the audience was another problem, as he struggled with public speaking. He was always nervous and worried that his ideas may be worthless hence he ends up keeping mute, not contributing anything, and looking stupid among other members of team. His inability to communicate effectively made the company exclude him from representing them on important occasions.

When he oversaw project execution, he had to lead teams. It was a nightmare for him since he found it impossible to properly assign and convey tasks to his team, encourage them, and even resolve team disputes.

Most of the time, his co-workers had to take on more work to compensate for his shortcomings. Soon, he lost the respect of his co-workers, and the job he once adored turned sour.

He received numerous penalties for his flaws, and the company eventually had to let him go because his deficiencies were generating major problems for the company.

The negative experience the company had with Sophia and Faruq; the two people recommended by Kobi damaged Kobi’s credibility at work, and future recommendations from him may no longer be trusted by the organisation.

Episode Lesson

Lesson 14: Soft skills, in addition to book knowledge and technical abilities, are required to keep any job.

Succeeding on a job goes beyond having technical or practical skills. It requires that one possesses desirable human qualities called soft skills. Soft skills are a combination of human skills that requires emotional intelligence. These skills include creativity and innovation, communication, problem solving, time management, decision making, teamwork, adaptability, among many others.

They help you understand how to groom yourself, how to speak to and treat people, how to discuss and solve problems in the best possible ways without misunderstanding and chaos, how to lead people, how to handle situations, the list is endless. If a person lacks crucial soft skills and possess nothing other than practical or book knowledge, then that person is considered unemployable, and if the person manages to secure a job, sustaining the job becomes a problem.

Research shows that the lack of soft skills called employability skills is a contributory factor to the problem of unemployability in Nigeria, as these crucial employability skills are often not thought in school. However, the good news is, anyone can develop and grow soft skills. One way to do that is to enrol in a soft skills academy to boost your skills. Terraskills offer Graduate Employability Skills to equip graduate with requisite soft skills for gaining and sustaining employment.

For this and much more Information relating to employability skills; employment opportunities; career advancement; and entrepreneurship development; Join our Telegram and WhatsApp groups; and also follow us on Instagram; Twitter; and Facebook.

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Episode 19: Social Media Saga

While Kobi enjoyed his job, he remained on the lookout for employment opportunities for Sophia and Faruq.

Soon, some vacancies were announced at the company where he worked, and employees were given opportunity to recommend candidates. Kobi felt that was a great opportunity to help his friends get employed, and so he recommended them. Since Kobi was close to the HR, the HR paid more attention to Kobi’s recommendation.

Luckily, Faruq and Sophia were shortlisted for employability assessment. They prepared ardently for the interview with the help of Kobi, and the they left a beautiful impression on the HR after their assessment.

Two weeks later, Faruq and Sophia received a congratulatory mail from the company, inviting them for the collection of their appointment letter.

The friends were ecstatic and couldn’t wait to receive their appointment letter before going shopping for workplace attires.

Collection of appointment letter.

Congratulations once again, the HR said to the 2 friends. He offered Faruq his employment letter, and just as he was about presenting Sophia’s letter to her from a file, his countenance changed as he flipped through a document in her file. It was a report of a background check on Sophia.

Errrm…… Sophia, I am sorry you didn’t get the job! Why, Sophia asked in a gloomy voice.

The HR responded; it is our company’s policy to do background check on applicants before hiring them. But because you were recommended by a staff, I didn’t pay attention to studying the report before inviting you. I am just getting to see the report now, and there are some unpleasant comments in it.

In one of your recent Facebook postings; you stated that you can’t wait to get employed so as to be gossiping with your co-workers about your Boss and customers. Gossiping about Boss and clients is against our company’s etiquette. Sophia tried to explain that the post was just a meme for fun and she didn’t mean it, but the HR wasn’t listening.

He continued, in another post, you stated that “life is too short to be troubled by another. If someone annoys you, treat their fuckup instantly and don’t give a damn!. If person provoke me, I fit knack am 2 by 2 for head” Post like this indicate that you are a very volatile and intolerant person.

In a subsequent post, we ………….. Sophia interjected, appealing and claiming that all of the posts were for fun, but HR refused to listen to her!

I am sorry for putting your hopes up with this invitation, we can’t hire you based on this report.

Lesson 13: Never Leave Mess on your Social Media

What one posts on social media says a lot about them. It speaks volumes about their personality; what they do, who they socialize with, how they behave etc

Seventy percent of businesses use social media to screen applicants before making a hiring decision. They examine applicants’ profiles and social media posts to learn more about their personalities and determine whether they are a good fit for their organization and/or the position they are applying for.

This is precisely why applicants must exercise caution when using social media. This does not, however, imply that social media should be avoided.

In fact, if an employer can’t find any trace of an applicant online, it might ring alarm bells. The world has become digitally revolutionised that individuals who do not have social media presence are considered to be uncivilised, especially if the job they are applying for requires that they have a digital presence. E.g., For Social Media Manager.

As a result, having a social media presence with a professional image is critical.

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Episode 18: The Dangerous Lies

It’s only been 5 months since Kobi started his new joband one could tell the significant improvement in his life. His look was fresher as he enjoyed better meals, and wore very nice clothing. His family were happy with him as he was now able to send them tangible allowance on monthly basis. One could tell that his new job gave him great satisfaction.

Faruq, on the other hand became envious of Kobi’s new life and was desperate to get a job too. After applying for a number of jobs and getting no, or negative feedbacks stating that he didn’t fit the requirement for the roles, he became tempted to lie about his skills and experience on his resume while applying for a job in a media house.

The Lies

Shebi, its 3 Years of experience in my field of study and good knowledge in video editing that you want; I will give it to you, he said as he crafted a false Resume. He made up a company name, job responsibilities, and accomplishment and sent his application.

Surprisingly, he was invited for an interview. Within the short notice of his interview, he prepared very hard for the likely questions he might face. Fortunately for him, the interview wasn’t too challenging. It was all theoretical. Yet, as simple as it appeared, he responded to over 50% of the interview questions with impressive lies and was fortunate to land the job. He was offered a pay package that even surpassed Kobi’s.

His friends congratulated him on his achievement but rather than being excited about resuming work, he was worried. He told his friends the truth about the tricked he played on the company and his concerns about being caught on the job and losing it. They were surprised by his guts and advised him to quickly learn the required skills before resumption. However, he had very limited time before resumption and couldn’t learn much.

The Implications

Just as with any other lies, his so-called small resume lie grew into big ones; as lying on your resume means that you will most likely have to keep lying even long after you’ve been hired.  Upon resumption, he lied more about job experiences he never had during discussions with his team, and soon they started suspecting him as he shared contradictory information out of forgetfulness.

His fear finally came to pass when he was asked to edit a media file; an aspect which he claimed to be very good at during his interview, but he couldn’t deliver on the job. He failed in more assignments, and one by one, his lies became apparent to the company and his colleagues and within 3 weeks, he was fired.

Lesson 12: Never Lie on Your Resume

When you are on the search for a job and you come upon a job you love, it can be frustrating to discover that there are some requirements for the job that you do not meet. It can be tempting under those circumstances to forge a little on your resume to meet the required standard.

However, the short term gains you might make in landing the job through deception can have long term ramifications that can be detrimental to your career. Even a little lie on your resume is not a good idea. If you said you had certain skills or experiences on your resume, you can be sure your employer will expect you to demonstrate those abilities on the job.

If you can’t really do what you said you could on your resume, soon it will become apparent to your employer and you can be fired; and because of the reason for your termination, you likely won’t be able to use anyone at the company as a reference. In addition, you will not only have to explain in future interviews that you were fired but also the reason why. While you could delete the company from your work history, if you’ve been there a long time, you’ll have a gap in your resume that may not be easy to explain.

So, rather than lying on your Resume about your skill set to land a job, you can bridge the gap by acquiring employability skills to enhance your employability.

For this and much more Information relating to employability skills; employment opportunities; career advancement; and entrepreneurship development; Join our Telegram and WhatsApp groups; and also follow us on Instagram; Twitter; and Facebook.

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EPISODE 17: NEVER GIVE UP!

Kobi grumbled to himself as he applied online for the position of a Project Manager with a Mining Industry. Ahn ahn! Why do I have to fill in so much information when my CV contains all of it! And there comes more; series of boring essays to be answered!

He answered the questions wearily, and just as he was about to submit his application through his phone, a call came through from a buddy. The call lasted for about 20 minutes and by the time he finished with the call to proceed with his application submission, he saw that the call had disrupted his internet network and he was redirected to start the application afresh!

He couldn’t believe his eyes. What! He screamed out loud.

So, after spending over an hour wracking my wits for answers to those insanely long questions, I have to start afresh!! Never! I’m tired, I’m not doing it again. After all, I don’t have the necessary work experience for the position. It’s possible that I won’t even be chosen in the end.

He hissed and hurled his phone over the sofa and laid on the ground thinking about his life; the struggles of his parents and siblings to see him through school and how disappointed they are about his current situation. On a second thought, he picked up his phone and restarted his application even though it was exhausting.

Guess, what!

His application was successful, and he was shortlisted for an interview 2 weeks after. During the interview, the HR said to him; “you do not have the requisite experience for this job, but the answers you provided during your application were remarkable and matched what we desire from an experienced person. Congratulations! You got the job. We will put you through the necessary trainings to ensure you do well on the job, and with your performance at the interview, we are certain you will.

Kobi was very glad that he pushed through the application. Finally! My family will be proud of me, he smiled.

Lesson 11 : Never Give Up!

Sometimes in our endeavour to accomplish our goals, the devil in our mind tells us; it’s too hard; it does not make sense; it will not work; we are not qualified to do it; etc. Such thoughts are discouraging and will keep us from going to the next level in our lives or keep us from taking the first step towards our goal.

Anytime you feel like giving up on a great idea, you can overcome the feelings by:

• Remembering why you started
• Hammering to yourself that stress will pass but the effect of giving up will linger
• Understand that if you do not press on now, you will be at the same position in years to come
• Remember that many thrived at it, therefore you can
• Ask yourself, which pain will you prefer to pass through; the pain of pressing on, and then subsequently achieving your goals? or the pain of giving up?

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EPISODE 16: COPY CAT

Marvelled by Emeka’s success, Kobi, Sophia, and Faruq decided to venture into farming. They resolved to begin with Poultry farming just as Emeka did, and expand into other areas of agriculture as they grow.

If Emeka the drop-out could make it very big from poultry farming, then we can too they affirmed themselves. Upon hearing their plans, Sabinus indicated interest to partner with them.

Without good knowledge about the business, they put up their money together, bought 250 little birds and choked them in a small cage that they constructed with weak woods in their compound. “By Christmas, these birds will be ripe for sale, and we will be cashing out big”, they envisaged.

Guess what?

On the first night the birds arrived at their weak cage, 11 out of the 250 birds died of cold and 5 appeared to be infected and were gradually infecting the other birds. On the second day, 10 more birds died, and on the third day, 38 birds had died in total.

Fear gripped them, that they organized a prayer session; prayed over some oil and sprinkled the oil around the poultry for the birds’ safety; but on the following day, more birds died.

 It was then they realized the need for a good knowledge of poultry health management; the need for proper lighting to keep the cage warm; a quarantine for infected birds and so on. But these, they didn’t budget for.

They managed to squeeze out money to construct a mini quarantine cage to isolate the infected birds, and also light up the cages for warmth. Soon, they started running out of funds to buy feeds for the birds, as it appeared that the only the thing the birds knew how to do was to eat non-stop and die whenever they like without pity for their owners. Soon, they started feeding the birds with just any kinds of waste food.

Withing 3 weeks, they lost 82 birds and by Christmas when they intended to sell the birds, all that remained of the 250 birds were 31.

Getting buyers for their birds became another problem as they didn’t have a good marketing plan in the beginning. In the end, they were able to sell only 9 birds at fair prices while they ended up eating the remaining 22 by themselves.

It was a huge loss and a big lesson to them.

Lesson 10: Never Be in a Rush to Start a Business Without a Good Knowledge of It.

There is nothing wrong with copying something nice but it should be done with good knowledge, as the success of any business begins with good knowledge, skills and competence to manage it. Devote adequate time to learning the ropes of a business and have a winning plan for success. Rushing into things without good knowledge and plans is as good as rushing into failure.

For this and much more Information relating to employability skills; employment opportunities; career advancement; and entrepreneurship development; Join our Telegram and WhatsApp groups; and also follow us on Instagram; Twitter; and Facebook.