Global IT training outfit, New Horizons, has partnered with The Adekeke University, Ede, Osun State, to launch an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) resource centre at the university campus. This N50m resource centre, with over 100 HP CPU-Monitor combined computers, intelligent boards, and multimedia projectors, has installed networking facilities, software, international IT-E Biz courses/curricula, furniture, uninterrupted power supply (UPS), with certified instructors, international exams centre, and students courseware.
The centre will help the university students attain international certifications in information and communications technology and e-business to be at par with other students in developed economies.
Speaking at the launch, the university Vice Chancellor, Professor Oluwole Gideon Amusan, said it would enable students, irrespective of their academic discipline, have minimum of four international skills certifications at 90 per cent subsidized rate, before graduation from the university.
“It will position them in global software development industry, e-banking, e-medical/telemedicine, e- government, e-legal administration, oil and gas as well as telecoms sector with attendant employment and self employment opportunities,” Amusan said.
He also added that, “It will also provide skills that make our students more marketable and relevant to the demands of the job market. Today, ICT has made scholars to redefine literacy. Man will return to the Stone Age if ICT is removed from learning. Adeleke University deems it fit that all our students should have certifications in CCNA, Oracle, Java, Microsoft and other globally acclaimed IT and e-business professionals courses.”
Managing Director, New Horizons Nigeria, Mr. Tim Akano, said the company has extended globally recognised IT certifications which are sought after by employers across all sectors to almost all the private universities in the last 10 years, training over 50,000 students nationwide. He urged the students to avail themselves of the opportunity presented by the resource centre by taking serious, their coursework and strive to get the certifications.
He said the world previously was ruled by the agrarian revolution, industrial revolution but in the 21st century, it is dominated by the information age which relies on ICT skills. “For any person to make great impact, such person must have ICT skills. Whether you are studying Nursing, Business Administration, Accounting, Medicine, Micro Biology, Law, among others, you need ICT skills,” Akano said.
“We felt that Adeleke University should not be left behind because the internet has turned the world to a global village. You will compete for employment with people from China, India, and USA, even as the job market is looking for people with the requisite skills irrespective of where they come from. You owe it a duty to put Nigeria on the global stage. With your IT and e-business certification you can be a millionaire as well as an employer of labour,” Akano told the students.
“In the next 20 years, Nigeria’s crude oil will no longer become the major revenue earner. The services industry will depend on ICT for revenue, and this is the time to embrace IT training,” he said.
The ICT Director and Head, Department of Computer Science at the university, Dr. Longe Olumide, while taking the governing council and management of the school round the resource centre, said the ICT certifications would make the students digital natives, and place the school at the top among the likes of MIT and Harvard university. He urged the students to make better use of the opportunity and entrench the nascent university among Nigeria’s leading institutions of learning
