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Introducing e-skills and Your Career! - Edition 1

You are welcome to e-skills and Your Career. Do you want to develop your skills? Do you want to be well grounded in your business? Well this is the programme for you and everyone who cares to make the right impact in this world of innovation and creativity.

The program, e-skills and Your Career was broadcast weekly for one year on Nigerian radio Metro FM 97.6, Wednesdays at 11:40 a.m.

On this program we discussed how to develop the skills and careers required to take advantage of opportunities provided through Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). What are the required skills in the digital era? It’s time to develop your computer skills and other technology related skills. Information Technology has transformed all aspects of life – social, educational and commercial.

Today we live in a global village where distance is no longer important. You can live in Nigeria, interact with Asia and do business in Europe. The environment creates opportunities like outsourcing, e-business and social networking. How can you use these opportunities to unlock opportunities now and in future? How do you interact better? How do you network better? It’s time for you to compete like a champion in the knowledge driven economy! But do you have the required quality of skills? You must also have knowledge on the ocean of available career opportunities.

E-skills and Your Career promotes awareness on career and knowledge opportunities and the need to develop technology skills in all areas of life. Technology is important but people must drive the knowledge revolution. Technology only provides the base, innovation comes from people. People use their ideas, energy and creativity to innovate; to develop their careers; to realize their potentials; to create opportunities. The main source of value in the knowledge society are your ideas, your skills, you career – your human capital.

What is e-skills and Your Career? Well it’s about developing careers, acquiring knowledge and skills to meet the quality human capital needs of today’s knowledge economy. Open your eyes to the skills and career needs for exploiting opportunities in the environment. So we must start with awareness – awareness of these new opportunities, awareness of the careers and even the thinking for opening these new doors. We are talking about Information Technology, Telecom, e-business (electronic business) opportunities. I’m sure you know there are new models for business and social activities (new ways of doing business, changes in how we interact and even learn). The new roads to opportunity have been created by this new global environment. For example some businesses today exist only online in the virtual world of the Internet. Such businesses have no physical interface; doing business with no physical interaction.

The new environment is not an end in itself. We raise awareness of skills, new opportunities and new thinking to address real issues and solve problems in society - issues of poverty, unemployment, education, productivity, business development, entrepreneurship and wealth creation. Important issues are not tackled simply by hoping for the best. Having the right skills and opportunities helps with getting the right jobs, setting up your own business. I’m sure you know without computer literacy you have fewer job opportunities. We often complain about lack of resources. But the problem is really lack of ideas; lack of awareness. Do you know the resources required to start many e-businesses are quite low compared to what it takes to start the traditional business? Without knowledge you are reduced to a mere passenger in the knowledge society.

So how do we all become active participants in the new knowledge economy? e-skills and Your Career looks at digital literacy and inclusion. Digital literacy and inclusion means that we are all part of the knowledge society. But can you really say you are part of the knowledge society if you don’t have skills that are required by the knowledge society. For example, you know how to read and write but we have to go beyond that; we have to go beyond that to our use of Information Technology.

How are we using IT and now I’m not talking about the IT professional, I’m not talking about the IT expert, I’m talking about YOU in your own work, in your business and even at play. Are you a trader? Are you a lawyer? Digital literacy is now a life skill like reading and writing. You don’t have to be an IT professional but in your own sphere of life how are you using to better your opportunities; to better your performance and I tell you something if you are not using IT in your work you cannot perform at your BEST in today’s society. So this is an opportunity for you to learn about how to be part of the information society so that you don't become DIGITALLY EXCLUDED.

Do you prefer to be outside looking in? It’s your career; it’s your life; it’s your future. How do we become digital literate? E-skills and your Career is therefore promoting promote digital literacy, digital inclusion. The digital opportunities are for everyone. The knowledge society is more than just technology and IT specialists. You have a role to play in the knowledge revolution!

e-skills and Your Career in addition focuses on IT, ICT and e-business education. Information technology is the infrastructure of today’s age. Today’s age you talk about computers, you talk about telephone, you talk about the GSM operators, you talk about infrastructure of ICT – Information and Communications Technology. Why is ICT so important? The technology support must be present in the information society. Technology is the backbone of this age. Without technology there would be no knowledge economy. Every country that wants to develop must therefore have a strong ICT sector. You cannot be perpetual consumers and you cannot continually depend on others to develop your ICT sector. And it goes beyond having the latest technology or infrastructure. You must have human capital within your own country to create IT and e-business products and services – specialists that can write software programs; that can manufacture IT products; that can design e-business solutions and so on.

But people cannot manufacture or create without knowledge. Education is therefore important. E-skills and Your Career looks at how you can get the technology knowledge you need whether you want to be an IT specialist or not. The education aspect includes IT training, e-business training, IT certification, formal education and other options. For example what is the relevance of IT training and certification? And what are the opportunities available for you in the higher institutions? And in addition other career growth options were examined. Career planning and counseling is treated extensively because too many people are making mistakes in their career decisions. Are we are using the right factors in making decisions affecting our careers? Will those decisions enable us to achieve our full potentials? Do you have a career plan and roadmap for your long term future? Look out for details of other issues e-skills addresses in on other pages.

Thank you for listening. Enough of the talk. Now go out and start developing your e-skills - Do Something Now!

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