… Harps on mindset reorientation to face realities of present-day labour market

The Lagos State Government has trained over two hundred graduate youths on the reality of working remotely as it moves to stem the rising tide of youth unemployment in the State.

The training, a collaboration between the Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment and CCHUB & Knowledge Exchange Centre Programme, was dubbed Career Workshop 4.0 with the theme: “The Rise of Remote Work: Opportunities and Challenges”.

Speaking at the event, the Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Mrs. Yetunde Arobieke, said that the training came on the heels of the rise in remote hiring and working as a result of the challenges thrown up by the COVID-19 pandemic, and has paved way for the growth of best practices in Human Resources, Employee Leadership Practices and Virtual Team Leaders.

Mrs. Arobieke, who stated that the programme is youth-focused and organised to enlighten them on how best to embrace remote work, also noted that the trend is gradually being embraced in the global workspace as the new normal, maintaining that it is a preferred solution for physical distancing.

She stressed the need for reorientation in order to achieve a shift in the mindset of the unemployed youths as they face the realities of the present-day labour market.

“Observations have shown that the number of unemployed youths seeking employment and particularly white-collar jobs outnumber the vacancies required to be filled, hence, the need to reorientate the mindset of the job seekers to imbibe learning vocational and technical skills to be self-employed”, the Commissioner said.

Arobieke appealed to youths to be technologically savvy, asserting that knowledge in digitalisation will bridge the skills gap among fresh university graduates and help them achieve global trends as they get integrated into the wider work environment.

One of the panelists at the event, Dr. Ayo Adeyemi, gave the benefits of remote employees as increased productivity, reduced stress, happier employees, more family time, less time commuting and a wider talent pool with the right people in the team.

The Coordinator of the career talk, Aghogho Akporido, used the opportunity to encourage youths to tap into the networking skills and appreciate the State Government’s efforts at addressing the challenge of unemployment among graduates in Lagos, while providing opportunities for graduates to have employability skills and exposure to today’s world of work.

He added that the State Government, under the able leadership of Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, is leaving no stone unturned in mitigating the unemployment scourge.

Other panelists that spoke at the training programme include, Molade Adeniyi, Dr. Mark Perkins and Omolara Aromire.