To think that we began 2019 with a rough start it is hard to fathom what we have come to become at the end of 2019.
Challenges there were not one or two but those that seemed to be lined up in a pipeline of what we chose to call as “start startlers.”
We thought worrying about everything from everywhere was one not feasible but two not doable. Our thinking was “ what should be our primary focus?” This taught us that all that was secondary can be looked into later.
This was the starting point of evaluating what it is we are trying to address. The systemic problem in education was that they followed the curriculum be it relevant or not because that simply was in the agenda. Then this led to us thinking what have we done to know this or make it better. For starters, we had delivered critical thinking sessions in schools just out of a whim of giving them a taste of something they had previously not done. However, a missing part in that effort was gauging the exact gap in the education system and how much this was recognized.
A bunch of us researched various sources of data and assertions of key influencers when it came to education. This gave us conclusive evidence that the difference we were planning to make should be a systemic change. Wondering what made a skilled workforce led us to the understanding that good training of a college educated workforce would definitely help. What if people came to college not prepared for the rigor and then went on to take these crash training sessions? That certainly would help them get a step up in the employment game alright, but would that make a systemic change?
What we needed was to create a workforce that was fed with topnotch competencies training that was backed up with great college education which again came from great secondary schooling empowered by training early on. When we decided to tackle it by beginning at secondary school level it became clear to us that “ Secondary was our primary.” The only way we were going to train a large number of school students were if we had a steady set of University students who were willing to do this pro bono work. Now what was their incentive to be dedicated in this effort, it was getting immense workforce training.
This revelation led to setting up of teams that were involved with research, creating micro training modules and several train the trainer sessions.
Our work got noticed by this generous donor who gave us the angel capital of 10,000 Naira to help with school training. This was a help of a huge magnitude, given that our trainers who were college students needing to meet commute and set up expenses.
Our fervor grew as more schools were interested in having us over. How could have all this happened without a mastermind? The mastermind was none other than our Co — founder who helped us design our vision, mission, strategies and various tactical team building work approaches. We clearly did not have money to extend a stipend except for our micro training session. That we did by giving them airtime to their cell phones. Now, this was the time the worry of retaining our university graduates and undergrads became an immediate concern.
At this important juncture, our Co-founder came up with the idea of extending this E-MBA program to all our staff authored by a PhD.
Next thing we know; we had started our staff E-MBA program giving us all the business training as well as a sense of purpose. The school training carried on very so smoothly and now along came a youth leadership organization that partnered with us. This partnership is yet to be finalized as to what were the mutual benefits and agreements but we were strengthened in numbers. Our partner company slightly younger than us were also getting the E-MBA education and equally setting their business fundamentals.
Here we are finishing 2019 of which the second half was educating, empowering and enriching our staff. What happened in the last three months was absolutely amazing.
We developed another business arm called LLATA or Let’s learn Africa Technology Academy.
This initiative was to incubate technology training specific to changing work trends and the need for a tech savvy workforce.
As we march towards 2020, we see a whole bunch of promise and I as the founder and CEO have enjoyed every bit of the journey. This dream of mine to create this immersion program now has a form and shape that I see as it grows every day. To me what started as an aspiration of getting a debt free college education has led to a whole moment.
My team means the world to me and there is not a day that goes without thanking them. — Abel Egbemhenghe
Finally, having a co-founder from across the pond as in the USA but who has constantly supported our initiatives and been there for us has been our pillar of strength.
We hope to achieve more in 2020.
