In a bid to pursue the mandate, establishing the Career Service Centre at the Reverend Father Moses Orshio Adasu University Makurdi, which hinges on developing and training students to acquire requisite skills away from from their spheres of studies in the university while also working, the leadership of the Centre paid a courtesy call on the Director General of Bureau for Arts, Culture, and Tourism, Makurdi to Intimate him on workings of the Centre.
Director of the Centre, Professor Paulina Ada Akpa, said the Centre is a hub for developing, training, counselling, mentoring, and preparing students for career training aside from the courses they are studying while in school. She noted that the Centre, which was newly established, is to cater to the needs of students with innovations and aspirations, adding that the Centre offers programmes in career orientation and counselling, training workshops, consultancy, research, monitoring and evaluation, as well as collaboration for practical career engagements which include internships and volunteering, mentoring and networking with Alumni agencies and industries.
Professor Akpa disclosed that it was in line with the vision and mission of the Centre in seeking practical solutions that they sought partnership with the Bureau to enable their students to boost performance, enhance their creativity, employability, and entrepreneurship skills which she believes would bridge the gap between education and unemployment especially for those in the humanities and administration.
In response, Director General of the Bureau, Dr Shadrach Teryila Ukuma, was appreciative of the visit by the Centre leadership, saying that it was one of his cardinal objectives to expand the frontiers of the Bureau to accommodate undergraduates to expand their knowledge beyond the classroom by offering them opportunities to acquire skills beyond their competencies which would create room for their employability given their vast exposure to skills.
While expressing enthusiasm and readiness in the partnership, Dr Ukuma said the Bureau was open to initiatives that will drive sustainable development in terms of wealth building, livelihood enhancement, employment generation, which the arts, culture, and tourism offers vast opportunities with the state having abundance of talents and festivals waiting to be explored which he is working tirelessly leverage.
Dr Ukuma assured the Director of the Centre of his desire to pursue strategic collaborations with them to deliver results that would be beneficial to the students to spur creative and entrepreneurial ideas, while also embarking on trainings for tourism operations, destination management and branding, art and crafts exhibitions, festival management, digital content creating, cultural conservation and documentation, as well as hospitality services with agencies they supervise. These, he believes, will foster strong alignment between the Bureau and the Centre and present clear openings for collaboration for structured internships and a solid ground for mentorship, mindset shifts, nurturing talents, unlocking opportunities, that will attract investments to the State thereby making it a competitive destination for culture-led development.
Saaniyol Ezekiel Akiga
Chief Information Officer