Young graduates have been asked to look beyond their certificates and get fresh skills if that is what it would take to secure their desired jobs find fulfillment in the workplace.
Executive Director of Media Career Development Network (MCDN), Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin gave the advice at a workshop organised by his outfit in Lagos recently.
The workshop titled: Exploring media job prospects featured journalists, fresh graduates and reporters already on the field, held at the MCDN facility in Lagos.
Welcoming participants at the event, Centre Manager of the Media Career Centre, Mr. Dayo Emmanuel enjoined participants to take advantage of the knowledge from the training and practicalise them.
Facilitating the session, Otufodunrin, former Online Editor at the Nation newspaper, told the participants frankly that there are no jobs especially in the media sector. According to him, creativity is still opening doors for people with skills.
“That you are not getting jobs is not a new thing. I graduated from the University of Lagos in 1985 and it took me a whole year to get a job even back then,” he said.
Otufodunrin added that, “Not getting job is not a curse but a hurdle you need to cross. You are not alone in the job search.”
He also enjoined young people in search of media jobs not to wait for a perfect situation which may not come. “You must be doing something, however small, don’t ever tell anybody you are not doing anything. If the problems of unemployment are going to be solved, new things are going to be created,” he said, enjoining young people to acquire new skills they would need to find their footings in the already saturated job market.
He also enjoined the participants to be deliberate and strategic about the time they spend online. “Be strategic about your time online. You must ask yourself what you want to learn online. Know who you want to follow online.
“The truth is that the existing model cannot cater for all of us. Don’t talk about the problems, try to fix them. There is nobody that cannot do anything and people want services of young people with fresh ideas.
“Then you must keep learning and the internet provides a lot of content you can learn from. Unfortunately, some of the things being taught are dated, meaning that you must keep learning to stay abreast of things,” Otufodunrin said.
Participants took turn to express their satisfaction after the free training and pledged to utilize the knowledge acquired and also look forward to future training opportunities.
