Sunday Mgbogu
IT Correspondent writes from Lagos – digitalsimboja@gmail.com
Introduction
The train has left the station. The world is moving at a speed faster than the human imagination. The premium on certificate has geometrically receded. Skills and competence have become the keys to competitive jobs. Today, potential employers are only interested in ‘what you can bring to the table’. It is no longer ‘may I see your certificates?’. Certificates alone have increasingly become worthless. In fact, recent job seekers’ experience reveal that the rule has changed. What you know yesterday may become obsolete today. The youths must continue to adapt to the changes that affect their lives. What seemed nearly impossible in the past has become a new normal as a result of information and communication technology. One can sit behind one’s desktop or laptops today and deliver/receive lectures thousands of miles away. You can secure a job today for any company in the world without needing to leave your living room. But without adequate re-orientation, relevant soft-skills and proper re-alignment of one’s thoughts, one can only observe the world move by as a mere spectator without actively participating in the real sense in the information society.
How has ICT changed the world?
ICT wave affects everybody. Some react to the wave while others shape and direct the it. The World Wide Web is an immense source of information. Billions of data are generated daily on the internet. Ranging from use of the internet for education, information, building social relationships to industries employing technology to power billions of devices across the world simply at a click of a button.
During the first to third industrial revolutions, industries were springing up faster than available skilled labour to operate the machines. As a result, captains of industries were ready to take high-school leavers, train them to acquire requisite skills and immediately engage them for immediate employment. But those were the generations of the old.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (41R) era requires industries to adopt the use of technologies and specialized study accompanied with digital knowledge. This has contributed to the high rate of unemployment and job loss of people, especially the youths without digital knowledge. Today a piece of computer can perform tasks that required thousands of people in the past at a speed faster than human thought. The Internet of Things (IoT) has virtually removed all barriers to what technology can do.
One can order robots to deliver surface mails, clean the house, attend to the aged and possibly drive one to work. Wearable’s technology devices can monitor blood sugar levels, check one’s blood pressure and perform some non-intrusive diagnosis necessary to prevent severe health breakdown. At a click of a button, transactions can happen between thousands of connected computers across the world. Who would believe today that you can find direction to anywhere in the world simply by accessing Google maps on your mobile devices? One can speak to machines today and it responds with super cognition beyond human thinking, offers suggestions and communicates in a near human nature.
Virtual reality is increasingly becoming popular. At a popular technology event last year in Viva Tech, Paris, France, participants with the aid of ICT devices navigated the entire French capital especially the popular Stade de France (which hosted the 1998 world cup final) and Paris Saint German (PSG) stadium. Flying cars which once existed in human imagination, treated as science fiction is made real today by technology. Electric cars are springing up all over the United States of America as well as Europe. By 2030, the EU and US would have phased out diesel engine cars.
Africa is just watching the world passing by their doorsteps. Youths with digital skills are migrating from the rural settings to the urban centres where their skills are needed. But the reverse is the case for those who are still dependent on mere certificates. In many communities Omor inclusive, some young folks, struggled to train themselves up to university degree only to return back to their roots and continue in the same economic activities that kept their forefathers behind the world. This is not mainly due to finance to sustain themselves in the city and compete with their colleagues but lack of exposure, awareness and skill.
Lack of money does not send later day graduates back to the village but lack of skill does. Now is an era of sabification and not certificates. Anybody that is still neck deep in certification without learning is not planning to shape nor direct the wave of digitalization but to remain an appendage to the information age.
A good number of the youths attained higher classes in tertiary institutions without learning standards, skills and competences. Such persons returned as illiterate graduates to their hometowns. Some gained admission and got registered into higher education institutions but lacked the requisite mental and intellectual capacities – they were overtaken by ineptitude as university drop out. This category of persons constitute the greatest nuisance to peaceful co-existence in communities owing to the fact that half education is a disease. This category of the youths ravages many societies and the entire country today.
Next Generation Skills for Employability
In order to be ready for jobs of today, youths are encouraged to engage in learning processes that guarantee employment in the current trend of the job market. Some of the relevant skills are hereunder highlighted to guide us access opportunities that spring up daily in the real economy:
Data Science
Data is life and those who can perform data analysis today are most wanted in the Tech firms. You can learn any of Python, C++, Scala, etc
Product Design
Learn to design user interfaces and user experience and you would be immediately employed today. Design using AdboeXD, InDesign etc
Software Engineering
So many youths are afraid of the word, Software Engineering especially when they have branded themselves ‘But I did not study Engineering in School’. The funny thing is that the majority of the successful tech startups today in Nigeria are founded by persons without engineering training or computer degrees. Learn any programming language of choice today such as PHP, Javascript, React, and build fantastic web applications or go mobile and learn Android studio, Kotlin, Swift, etc and build both android or iOS mobile applications.
Startup Secrets
When we talk about tech startups that have raised millions of dollars today in funding, one begins to wonder if the founders are aliens from outer space. Actually, they are youths like us who have risen to the challenge of society and today are celebrated all over the world. It has been observed that the majority of the founders of Startups were not up to 30 years when they worked on an idea that today generates millions of dollars annually. Some already received millions of dollars even before they have a working product. The potentials of the youths are enormous and begging for full utilization. Do not be left behind.
A Way Forward
No matter the amount of information provided to anyone, he must take action before results are expected. It belies our imagination that so much effort is exerted by our youths to push themselves through university education but a little effort needed to sustain the self-developmental strides usually is non-existent. In order to curb the urban to rural migration after graduation from colleges and massive graduate unemployment, the youths are encouraged to embrace technology to learn relevant skills necessary to sustain them in the cities and fetch them competitive jobs. While undergoing tutorials for academic purposes, youths can buy a piece of laptop and enroll in software development programs. Many abound today in almost every location and it costs way less than the money spent on frivolities to acquire these next generation skills. So many youths focus on short term monetary success by engaging in illicit activities to acquire wealth. The energy can be rechanneled to beneficial activities that can enthrone sustainable development.
Conclusion
Today would become 20 years ago some day. The power to change your narrative lies in your own hands. Gone are the days when one must depend on uncles or distant relatives after school to offer you a job in order to forge ahead in life. Opportunities exist today all around you courtesy of evolving technologies. Grab one today and begin to learn a new skill in a territory unchallenged. Save up money, buy a laptop, enroll in any software development program either online or offline. Remember you cannot transfer your job to your children or generation, but you can transfer your skills to impact their lifetime. The journey begins with you, only take action.