In today’s globalized world where competition for employment and post-education opportunities permeate national boundaries, the need for academic institutions to equip their students with the relevant skills to remain competitive has become critical. Nile University of Nigeria has met this challenge head-on. As an institution of Honoris United Universities— the first and largest pan-African private higher education network which the university joined in 2020— Nile University has implemented several comprehensive employability initiatives aimed at boosting its students’ global competitiveness.
At the heart of Nile University’s employability agenda is the recently established Career Services Center, which is tasked with providing students with the requisite training and knowledge to bridge the skills gap needed to become successful professionals and entrepreneurs. The Career Services Center adopts Honoris United Universities’ proven and robust data and technology-driven employability strategy that is founded on three main pillars:
- continuous tracking of key industry trends and skills needs and ensuring the alignment of the institution’s curricula with the wider market
- identifying top organizations in key sectors and building relationships with them toward understanding the in-demand skills in the industry and future skills needs
- developing well-functioning skills development and career services teams to work closely with students and help them build the requisite skills to thrive post-graduation
To enhance the Center’s ability to develop future-ready graduates, Nile University has partnered with renowned multinational PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), giving the university (and its students) access to the expertise of some of the best Career Development Specialists in the world.
Harnessing the power of the Honoris United Universities network that spans 10 countries, 32 cities and encompasses 15 institutions across the continent, the Center has deployed a number of impactful employability programs since its establishment, including the roll-out of the Honoris 21st Century Skills Certificate, access to virtual internships, and entrepreneur-focused Startup, to name a few.
The 21st Century Skills Certificate is a future-oriented 12-month virtual program that trains students on the eight most in-demand skills in the 21st-century workplace: behavioral intelligence, critical thinking, creativity and design thinking, communication, collaboration, coding, data analytics, and entrepreneurship. A total of 100 students across Nile University’s 35+ undergraduate and postgraduate departments participated in the program in the 2020/2021 academic session.
The virtual internship is a fully online three- to six-month international internship program that enables students to gain crucial international work experience through work placements in any of 3,500 companies in over 70 countries. In the 2020/2021 academic session, five Nile University students participated in the program, with placements in reputable international organizations like Alvicus AG (Switzerland), Omni App Solutions (Singapore), and Moripesh (Kenya).
Startup is an innovative program aimed at helping Nile University students and alumni with support to achieve their business goals at ideas-stage or as existing startups, through financial and mentoring support from the university and its partner organizations. The latest iteration of this scheme, Startup 2.0, was held on 24th – 25th November 2021 at the Nile University campus. During the event, Nile University’s students and alumni pitched their startup ideas to a panel of judges in the hope of getting sponsorship for their businesses from the university and the event sponsors. The program concluded with 10 student and alumni entrepreneurs winning funding for their startups.
By leveraging its unique position as a member institution of Honoris with a focus on collaborative intelligence, Nile University continues to develop world-class African human talent with an entrepreneurial mindset and 21st century skills to thrive in the globally disrupted world of work.
Nile University of Nigeria: Build your success for a better society.
Admission is ongoing for the 2021/2022 academic session at Nile University of Nigeria. To apply online, visit Nile University’s online application page at https://application.nileuniversity.edu.ng/ – application is completely free.
Source: guardian