The last decade has witnessed tremendous changes in the world of ‘workforce’. Automation and self-operated machines are gradually becoming a trend and this is radically changing skill sets required by organizations globally.

The curriculum of many public tertiary institutions in Nigeria is obviously not preparing graduates for the “workforce”, forcing many graduates to settle for undesirable job opportunities. According to the Nigeria Bureau of statistics, unemployment rate rose from 18.1% to 23.1% in the Q3 of 2018 while under-employment rate stood at 20.1%.

Every year, a minimum of 500,000 graduate are released into the job market. It has been proven that more than a quarter of this number are not ready for the market place due to many reasons. This is already threatening the future of these graduates and the future of “workforce”.

The rise of automation is gradually setting out new rules for business excellence and market dominance, and in the emerging worlds, creativity and innovation have become the non-negotiable indicators of differentiated capability. Numerous graduate talents now compete with technology for limited available job opportunities.

Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility has designed the NIBSS Tech Ed Program which is the first of its kind to reach out to young under-graduates in tertiary institutions across the six National Geo-Political Zones to train and prepare them for the workforce of the future through Learning and Mentoring programs.

This project is set to bridge the knowledge gap in graduate talent and get them to be ‘’job ready’’ with primary focus on under-graduates studying or with interest in courses bordering on Financial Technology & Operations.

For the pilot phase in 2019, three institutions of learning in three National Geo-Political Zones have been selected – Federal University of Technology (FUTA), University of Abuja (UniAbuja) and University of Port Harcourt (UniPort).

| LOCATION | DATE OF SYMPOSIUM | | ——– | ——– | | University of Port Harcourt (UniPort) | November 16, 2019 | | ——– | ——– | | Federal university of Akure (FUTA) | November 26, 2019 | | ——– | ——– | | University of Abuja (UniAbuja) | December 5, 2019 |

NIBSS Tech-Ed Intervention Symposium (NTEIS) is a one-day symposium designed to raise awareness, orientate under-graduates about the endless opportunities available in the financial technology space, the skills required to take these jobs, resources needed to develop these skills and access to information about jobs, products, innovation and capacity development.

The Career Mentorship Program (NCMP) is a follow up to (NTEIS). Selected talents at the symposium will be admitted into a career mentorship program and will be exposed to resources needed to develop the skills required as well as guidance in making career choices.

The benefits of the program include Economic Sustainability, FINTECH Awareness & Publicity, Goodwill, Talent Resources and Corporate Governance.

NIBSS hopes to contribute its quota to the development of society through this CSR program by impacting the lives of young graduates as well as providing a job ready competitive workforce.