Another Truth about Professional Courses [NYSC as inference]

I would want to believe, I am here, more interested in particular about the experience I am undergoing at the moment. I mean, I am a NYSC (National Youth Service Corps) member serving currently in the far East. I have so far so good seen nothing too wrong, today, about the initiative from the then Head of State, Yakubu Gowon. He introduced the programme in the late 1960s in order to bring about unity in the country due to its pluri-lingual nature and the bloody Civil War as a prequel which ushered in distrust among Nigerians. Ever since, the programme lasts 12 months by default with the finale being issuing of its certificate of service.

However, beginning from the 21 days orientation programme in the camp and after, there are sorts of programmes which corps members are being exposed to and majority of them are based on PROFESSIONAL COURSES with different professionally conspicuous tags. This they emphasise a lot to the extent one could even dream it while in bed. Could this be a good thing, a bad thing or are there areas where there are misconceptions which could on a long run be detrimental for a corps member like myself?

Professional courses are now the order of the day to help make the CV fuller in content. With that evidence youths are encouraged the more to add skills and values to themselves through these professional courses. Different institutions hence keep emerging and they give hundreds more reasons why the professional courses are needed. But then, I spot a big problem which majority might not be conscious of having been carried away by the sweet talks persuasion to consider the professional courses as the way out into that dreamed shining office. I found out that the primary reason they give is that it gives us an hedge over colleagues during interviews or while applying for job vacancies. But is that actually the whole fact?

If I took about four professional courses and I applied for a job in a company then I got to meet other people there for the same job with TGE, same knowledge, same certifications, in the professional courses I did. Now, do we call that an hedge?

Some do not even attend the lectures well enough and are yet certified (as long as they have made full payment).

Moreover, the cross is, professional courses cannot practically speak for a job seeker but the proficiency or the competence of the same job seeker, the quality of what the job seeker can offer as performance. Hence, It is false to believe that only professional courses will automatically guarantee a job seeker the dream job. This is where SELF DEVELOPMENT comes in. As a matter of practicality and efficiency and professionalism, a job seeker has got to be resourceful in practice for real as documented in the document,  even beyond, as element of surprise. I mean, in my room, at NYSC, I had bunk mate who studied Computer Engineering in one of the subregion countries but could not identify a mouse. He studied a 5 or 4 years course in few months and that was it. Again, he could not point to a mouse vividly. Whereas, we could have primary school pupil who could run a programme brilliantly - that, now, shows,  self development, commitment and being practically efficient beyond a written document. Efficiency embedded in a job seeker is what any firm would want to employ to bless the same better in the competitive market. I do not say professional courses do not have any benefits at all or use in all, what I mean to emphasise is for an individual to develop self in the profession and outside the profession such belongs to without relying wholly on the awarded certificates of professional courses to get them there.

These days, some corps members are noticed going about in kilter in order to take professional courses as they are almost rounding off their service year and with the believe that as long as they have these professional courses' certificates and attach their tags on their CVs, employment has been heavenly sealed. Well, there is much more to that in the market world. All one needs is reasoning and one would agree.

It is what one really knows and can bring to the table that would eventually give one a worthy employment opportunity but not just the few weeks of lectures and the hype the certificates are the means to every portfolio end. It is YOU who can make that job become yours for a long time if you really are efficient through self development, consistently.

©Boluwatife & Jodekss

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Edited by JOWES - 08135633977