The Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, said it is committed to promoting entrepreneurship and inculcating skills in its students and staff to make them self-reliant and more relevant in modern society.
The institution said the move is aimed at discouraging the desire for white-collar jobs and driving self-reliance and sustainability.
RSU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Nlerum Okogbule stated this while speaking at a one-day workshop organized by the institution’s Entrepreneurship Development Centre on the theme ‘Entrepreneurship Education as Catalyst for Sustainable Economic Growth in Nigeria’ held at the university.
Okogbule further said the university management has taken several measures to ensure that the drive for entrepreneurship is achieved.
He said, “One of those measures you have noticed is the establishment of the Entrepreneurship Development Centre, which is ongoing, and in addition to that, we have also approved and commenced academic work in the Faculty of Entrepreneurial Studies.
“This is the first time that the university will have a faculty to serve primarily entrepreneurial studies, and we have allocated a whole campus to that faculty. Even though for now, they are studying here, from January, they will move to the Kira campus (in Ogoni land).
“So that speaks to the fact that as a university, we are interested in ensuring that people have skills that will enable them to function maximally in society.”
“The days of white-collar jobs are gone, and I think gone forever. In those days, the moment you graduated from the university, the government would employ you; give you a car and all that.
“But today, we have a situation whereby we have a lot of people, who’ll graduate, no jobs and this is because they do not have additional skills to be able to function very well in society.
“So we are telling men and women to have those skills. Today, we have a program of entrepreneurship studies for our students to be able to have skills that they can utilize when they graduate from the university.
“I’d like to say that additionally, we are taking measures to encourage our staff to also be involved in activities that will enable them to apply the skills and knowledge they have in practical tasks.”
Okogbule said the primary purpose of the Entrepreneurship Development Centre workshop is to recalibrate the mindset of students and the public on entrepreneurial skills, to think, create and innovate.
He added, “This is a way of building capacity for young people and adding value to the ecosystem. We are living in a dynamic world, where things are changing and the youths are trained in soft skills, digital technology, and other business skills.
“It will help to reduce unemployment and keep them away from social vices such as criminality, cultism, youth restiveness, drug addiction, and other concupiscence.”
