IN AN effort to adequately prepare the mind of young Nigerian students and position them to help fix the country's economy in the nearest future, the Management of Trinity International College, Ofada has organised a two-day entrepreneurial/career day for their students and other schools within their environment.The event, which brought together experts from diverse field of endeavour, provided information and guidelines to students on opportunities and prospects inherent in various courses.The Principal of Senior School, Mr. Christopher Olayiwola Odetola said the exercise was borne of the recognition of how developed nations like Indonesia, India, China and others, applied their local resources in small-scale business enterprise and generated huge income for the respective countries.For him, the kernel of development in Nigeria is no longer what the government can do but rather what the private sector is able to give to the society, hence, the need to guide the young ones discover their potentials and follow their passion especially in this era of no white collar jobs.'Equipping these children with the right tools by providing right information is very crucial at this point, they must understand what is involve and where to end up. It has been discovered that countries that where no where before in terms of development suddenly sprung up through development of a small scale business enterprise in their countries.''They started making use of their local resources in small scale and that started generating income for them. In our own present economy especially now that there is no white collar job, we want our students to look around at opportunities of how they can assist people by way of service delivery or small scale enterprise or offering ideas to make our society better,' he explained.One of the guest speakers, Bassey Ephraim, a chevron staff, who spoke on 'Career in Geology,' notified the students of numerous opportunities inherent in the oil and gas sector, as there are so many untapped areas in the sector.He said, 'we need people to break new grounds in the oil and gas sector, there are prevalent number of non-Nigeria in that sector, we want to see a sector that will be Nigerian dominant years to come depending on if you can breakthrough undeveloped areas, the sector is wide and broad, pick a section, develop new software, sciences and technology that will match the American technology, Japanese and Korean.'He also advised them to be honest in discovering what they are good at, 'not settling for a course that a cousin is studying, they should be independent enough to know what they are best at, in today's world people make a lot of money without being a doctor or lawyer. Actors and actresses and even standup comedians are making millions of money, just discover what you are good at and you can excel.'Also the Principal of Junior School, Mr. Femi Apata, remarked that the overall goal was to guide the students make the best choice. 'We had a story of a medical doctor who eventually became a photographer and chartered accountant, who become a fashion designer, and they area really enjoying what they are doing. In order to avoid this kind of hazard in the children we decided to tailor into what is their interest and natural gift, so that as they journey along in life they can be the best.The school's Guidance and Counselor, Mrs. Ifetu Tugbiyele, said the unit assists the children in choosing subjects that are related to their interests so as to know what they want to be and the essence of going to higher institution.At the end of a debate between Emerald High School, Mowe and Assemblies of God High School, Ofada, on whether 'parents should play key role on determining career choice of the children,' participants of the event, advised parents to guide and advise wisely rather than imposing a career on their children.
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