Educationist Urges Students To Choose Entrepreneurship Courses In UTME

Lagos-based educationist, Peter Ogudoro, has admonished candidates preparing to sit for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Nigeria, to choose entrepreneurship courses so as to be economically self-reliant in future.

Ogudoro, a Nigerian teacher, recently got an award from FACEBOOK as one of the world’s amazing virtual community managers for developing a “most helpful and engaging educators’ platform called ‘Nigerian Teachers.’ He is the Managing Consultant at Ogudoro Leadership Trainers & Management Consultants.

Speaking with Prime Business Africa, Peter Ogudoro, urged students preparing to take the forth coming UTME conducted by Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to be smart and not just pick courses anyhow but pick courses that can create employment for them when they finally graduate from the university.

According to him, “there are no more jobs out there, so right now it is about what you can create or start up for yourself. It is not just about studying to obtain a certificate or degree anymore, it is about how you can translate the knowledge you have in your head into a business that can liberate you financially.”

He said many years ago there were jobs available for school leavers; people were being begged to work. Just graduate and there is a job already waiting for you, with all the juicy welfare benefits you can think of.

In fact you need not study something great, just read secretarial studies. Once you graduate there is a job waiting for you.

“We need them to take more of entrepreneurial courses, business-oriented courses and courses that will sharpens their skills so that when they graduate they can start inventing and developing things useful to the society and useable by the generality of Nigerians and from there start generating income for themselves without waiting for any white collar jobs.”

For the Facebook award winning educationist, it is not just about going to school, but sharpening and honing one’s skills.

Also lending his voice to the discourse, a trained teacher, Oshin Omotayo, appealed to those writing JAMB, to look at the bigger picture, what will you be doing tomorrow with what you have studied or can what you are about to study put food on your table and money in your pocket in Nigeria when you graduate, considering the way the economy is going.

Omotayo, said, “passion is not enough. If you are passionate about what you are studying but in the next few years its economic relevance will be next to nothing don’t do it. Just first of all sit down, re-assess and re-evaluate, so that you don’t have to start writing applications and preparing CV’s for jobs that are not available.”

“So be wise and smart,” Omotayo advised.

Kayode Shopekan