IBRAHIM RAMALAN takes a look at how SOS Foundation has put up all the necessary wherewithals to empower the youth through equipping them with the requisite knowledge and skills outside the 4 walls of a classroom in order for them to be self reliant so as to attain greatness.
Only last month the Skill Outside School (SOS) Foundation has pilotted it’s flagship Bridge Project as it organised inter-school competition between JSS Jabi and JSS Wuse at the Government Secondary School Jabi, Abuja. Bri is an employability skill building and mentoring scheme that is aimed at providing secondary school students witdge Projecth necessary skills and career mentoring outside the 4-walls of a classroom so as to become an agent of positive change in the society. The competition also aims to build school pride, encourage student engagement with national/local challenges, provide an opportunity to apply skills and offer participants a strong CV building activity
The theme of the competition was ‘Nigeria and Us: A Social Challenge, A Possible Solution’. The presentation was based on a social change project developed by the respective school teams, which included examination mal-practices, it’s effects and solutions; Gender Disparity and lastly inaduquate Reading Culture in the country. Each team were given 7 minutes to present the idea to a panel of judges and 3 minutes for Questions and Answers.
Skill Outside School (SOS) Foundation is a Not-for-profit organisation with the aims of providing career and skills development and training in secondary schools and tertiary institutions across Nigeria thereby building human capital; nurturing partners and volunteers who will be trained in carrying out the objectives of the organization thereby developing the nation’s future changemakers; liaising with and complementing the effort of agencies, institutions and organisations both within and outside Nigeria in promoting employability skill building, career development and social change so as to realize employment generation and value re-orientation amongst youth; providing support and assistance to organisations and youth groups with similar aims and objectives;as well as doing all such other lawful things as may be considered to be incidental or conducive to the attainment of the above objects or any of them.
The Significance
The initial findings of the British Council Research and Advocacy Project 2013-15 show that employers in Nigeria are concerned with the lack of key employability skills that graduates possess. Indeed, of particular concern are the lack of ‘soft’ skills which strike at the heart of what this Foundation aims to build in the young participants.
It is true that little is known about the causes of poor graduate outcomes and what universities can do to improve this situation. However, this Foundation puts forward that in the existing youth development and education policy framework, there is not a strong enough emphasis on employability skill building schemes and career insight opportunities for the youth. This is evident upon viewing the Draft Action Plan and Implementation Strategy for National Youth Policy 2008-2014 by the Ministry of Youth Development, educational policy frameworks of various State Governments and homing in on debates on the routes to educational standardization and reform in Nigeria.
Rather, much of the focus in the area of youth and employment is on vocational skill training, which although laudable ignores a significant proportion of the population who will inevitably enter the work force as employees in various organisations and sectors. The various long term projects in the Foundations pipelines will be designed to reflect ways to plug this gap and enhance proper entrepreneurial spirit in fostering innovation in Nigeria particularly in the services industries. Most entrepreneurship development programs in Nigeria target building small and medium scale enterprises in manufacturing sectors whereas there is a huge lacuna in terms of developing businesses that target service delivery improvement.
The lead facilitator, Miss Halima Ibrahim Abba, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Skills Outside School Foundation where Mr. Wale Samuel, Mrs. Hadiza Ibrahim Abba and Mr. Jemilu Yahaya Kwande are members. She is a 2013 first class law graduate from Kings College London, UK. She is a Batch C 2013 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Member currently serving at the Bureau of Public Enterprises as a General Counsel Enterprise Officer. She will be embarking on her masters in Development Studies in the University of Cambridge where she intends to expand the foundations international partnership. Her interest lies primarily in education, career development and youth empowerment. She is currently a Level 2 candidate in the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Qualification and seeks to utilize the CFA charter to build a brand in the financial services and wider industry as a platform to develop the Foundation through partnerships and advocacy.
She has extensive insight into the development and non-profit arena through her voluntary work with OXFAM GB as a facilitator of a youth activism group, member of an advisory youth board and president of an OXFAM society at University. She is the President of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Editorial Community Development Service (CDS) group where she manages over 160 NYSC Corps Members involved in media, youth engagement and Community Outreach. She is a mentor with the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), a not-for-profit organisation that provides access to students from underrepresented backgrounds into competitive industries of law, finance, professional services and creative advertising. She has won several awards including the V50 and V10 awards for her community service work with the UK Department for Educations Children and Youth Board as well as the Kings Leadership Award and NUS Skills Award for her contributions whilst the University.
Long term the vision of SOS Foundation is to incorporate a number of other projects which includes, but not limited to: Professional and Tertiary Institution Mentoring Program Mentors have the option of eing involved in either/all the following: Bridge Project Mentoring Program for secondary school students General Career Fairs for secondary school and tertiary institution students
SOS Careers Mentoring Program for tertiary institution students
Each participant of the Bridge Project and SOS Careers Program will be supported by a mentor studying at university or working in industry. This will increase the aspirations of the students and provide them with on-going information on their future career paths and changing industry dynamics from individuals in their industries/sectors of interest.
This program will include online access to resources for both mentors and mentees to create a smooth mentoring process and provide avenues for face-to-face meet and greets quarterly or biannually with local events organized in different cities for mentors and mentees to interact in person. For the mentees, the mentoring program will employ the use of the Personal Development Plan (PDP).
The PDP is a structured process undertaken by an individual to record and reflect upon their own learning, performance and achievements and to plan for their personal educational and career development. PDP embraces approaches to learning that connect planning, doing, recording and reflection of ideas thoughts and experiences which can be evaluated to provide results that can be applied to improve the individual going forward. Mentors will interact with mentees to track the progress and development of mentees through the PDP.
SOS Careers
The SOS Careers program will offer preparatory support and guidance to students in tertiary institutions in accessing their chosen career interests. This will be through providing access to online courses, career simulation games/exercises, professional development training, networking events, CV and cover letter drafting skills, mock interview skills sessions and technical and soft skills training. This provides a realistic picture of the job market to the candidate. For the organisation, it provides access to employable talent. For platinum sponsors of the SOS Careers program, the foundation will provide a premium service which involves a tailor made resource that recruits candidates of the SOS Careers Program to the specific employment requirements of the platinum sponsor organisation. This program will work in tandem with the Professional Mentoring Program.
This program will also provide an opportunity for the Foundation to partner with organisations in the “Alternative Labour Market” i.e. private organisations, international agencies and the Non-Governmental Organisations in various industries to provide access to the participants in the tertiary institutions to these industries through internships, shadowing opportunities, insight days and work placements.
In addition, the Foundation seeks to partner with entrepreneurship focused organisations such as the Tony Elumelu Foundation and Co-creation hub to develop a culture of ‘innovative entrepreneurship’ particularly in service provision and delivery amongst the youth. This will allow young people with innovative and ground breaking inventions and business models to foster in Nigeria particularly where such ideas are capital intensive and require sustained mentorship and guidance to realize.
SOS Grants
The SOS Grants is a funding program that will provide grants to participants of the Bridge Project who are unable to further their education to tertiary institutions due to financial and social reasons. A rigorous merit based selection process and needs based assessment will be conducted to select the most deserving and brightest of the participants of the project.
For individuals, a Sponsor-A-Child Scheme will operate to allow individuals sponsor the young participants through direct payments to the schools concerned whilst notifying the Foundation or payments to the Fund wherein the Foundation will pool the funds and disburse payments to the deserving participants. Sponsors can choose to indicate which participants they would like to support and/or provide general contributions.
Corporate sponsors will also be offered the option to provide contribution towards the fund in addition to the other forms of support offered to the Foundation.
ParentLink
This platform will allow parents/guardians and their wards to attend career debrief events/sessions where they can discuss their wards future career interests. Many young people have an idea of what careers they want to pursue but are often deterred from pursuing those careers due to parental influence or pressure. Hence, this platform will provide an opportunity for parents and wards to openly interact on their wards career prospects with professional mentors to provide on-going advice and insight.
