IAUE: Acquire Digital Skills To Complement Your Degrees, VC Urges Students

The need for students to boost their chances of employment by acquiring digital skills to complement their educational certificates has again been emphasised, Myschoolnews writes.

This was the message of Professor Okechuku Onuchuku, the Acting Vice-Chancellor of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, at the maiden graduation ceremony of Cisco Networking Academy at the institution, on Thursday, August 31, 2023. 

The Vice-Chancellor revealed that the partnership with the academy was part of his administration’s policy to train the students with skills that would prepare them for global job opportunities and revealed that over 5,000 students have benefitted from the training.

Acknowledging that IT has taken a major role in every sector of the global economy, Prof. Onuchuku emphasised that CISCO is a worldwide player in the information and communications technology sector and its certification is used by industries to verify competence.

He highlighted that obtaining a CISCO certification in any IT field offers an edge during job interviews, and commended the organisers of the event.

In the same vein, the Acting Director of the Information and Communications Technology centre at the institution, Dr Nathaniel Ojekudo, hinted that mastering new digital skills was crucial as a result of the evolving information and communications technology landscape.

He disclosed that the academy was established at the institution after an assessment of the facilities available at the ICT centre and attributed it to the Vice-Chancellor's unwavering commitment towards ensuring the academy's success at the university.

The director listed some of the opportunities one could harness from the IT sector and urged the students to make adequate use of the academy to better their future while reassuring the determination of the university management to provide a conducive and effective learning environment for the participants.

In a related development, the Acting Head of the Department of Computer Science. Dr Constance Amannah, who differentiated between a job and a career, noted that a job could offer a steady pay cheque for a short time, while a career gives a long-time financial security.

He described acquiring new skills through continuous learning as one way to improve one’s career which he said could be knowledge-based, skill-based, entrepreneurship-based, or freelancing.

Noting that the ICT sector has opened up more opportunities for careers, he reminded the students of the need to acquire gainful skills to improve their employability.

Meanwhile, the representative of CISCO Academy, Dr Daniel Ikpa, who noted that the importance of a digital skill cannot be overemphasized, said learning such a skill is not dependent on one's course of study.

He explained that the benefits of CISCO certification are innumerable and begin from fundamental to professional levels, just as the certificates open doors to global job opportunities by bridging the 21st-century skills gap among job seekers.

Dr Ekpa enumerated the Internet of Things (IoT), Networking, Cyber security, Artificial Intelligence, and Programming as some of the programmes offered at the academy.

In his closing remarks, the Acting Registrar, Mr Donald Okogbaa, thanked CISCO Academy for shinning the light for a brighter future for the students and urged the beneficiaries to make proper use of the knowledge gained to tap from the global job opportunities that the ICT offers.

Awards were presented to outstanding students.