What went down at the Employability Fitness Program (EFP 2.0)

What went down at the Employability Fitness Program (EFP 2.0)

The level of unemployment has caused a lot of graduates to not only despise interviews but also become fearful which makes them fail and remain unemployed.

CareerLife Nigeria was conceived out of the passion to help solve the issue of un-employability among graduates.

The Founder, Yewande Jinadu is someone who had earlier struggled with interviews and she dreaded it so much until she decided to pursue Human Resource as a Career path and learnt how it felt to be at the other side of the table.

After the first edition that impacted 138 young graduates, the second edition of the Employability Fitness Program(EFP) held on the 18th January 2020 as part of the bi-annual vision for the program.

The Program seeks to help young graduates overcome interview phobia by exposing them to a live interview mock session with HR Professionals and Subject Matter Experts so that the feedback they would get would be personalized to their unique need and deficiency. The session hosted 100 partcipants this time unlike the 50 participants of the first edition. Participation in the EFP was entirely FREE.

They were 16 panels consisting of 1 HR Professional and one Subject Matter Expert(in the candidates desired career path). Participants were assigned to various panels based on their career interest and were interviewed for 15mins each. Some participants not only left with personalized feedback on areas of improvement but also left with a free CV and LinkedIn profile review as well as contacts of some panelist who promised to refer them for some roles.

The effect of the program is to make the participants more confident of themselves and also open their eyes to where they have gotten it all wrong.

Some lessons from some of the guest speakers were:

Your fear for interview phobia was learned and the same way you learned it, you can un-learn it

  • Start by playing the process through your head on how the fear came and then begin to re-write the script by telling yourself some key things like “You will walk alive out of the room no matter what”, “These people(interviewers) are also human beings like you”
  • You need to give yourself credit for all you do when highlighting some skills. Being self-aware is key in identifying transferable skills
  • Find out what your strengths are and showcase it. Search for careers that are aligned with your strongest skills
  • Researching a company and practicing interview questions would help you to be more prepared and less fearful.

 

Big thanks to our Partners to the program who provided fee products to the participants or free services as their way of contributing towards the Development of youths:
Nestle Nigeria
Flour Mills Plc
Coca Cola
Andrews Photography (who produced this wonderful images)
CuppiesnMore (Who made delicious cupcakes for the participants)
TalentCode who supported in other ways

The Employability Fitness Program still continues with a 3months post-coaching exercise in a bid to handhold them for the next 3 months and measure the effectiveness of the program.

To watch the video highlight, click here

Would you like to sponsor or partner with us towards the July Edition? Kindly send an email to careerlifenigeria@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

Yewande Jinadu

Yewande Jinadu is the Founder of CareerLife Nigeria(careerlife.com.ng) and also a Strategic HR Business Partner of a leading tech firm. She's a certified HR Professional with a mix of Generalist and Specialist Experience who supports the business to achieve it's goals through the people. Her strengths are in Talent Acquisition, Performance Management, Employee Engagement, Organization Development and Employer Branding. Her social initiative, CareerLife Foundation solving UN SDG Goal 8 is aimed at reducing unemployment by helping graduates and professionals become Employable and accelerate their career growth. With various awards won both locally and globally, her vision is to help millions of youths achieve measurable success in their career. Yewande holds the Senior Professional of Human Resources International (SPHRi) Certification from the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI), USA. She is an associate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (ACIPM) and has a Practitioners License to practice HR in Nigeria. She's the Convener of the Employability Fitness Program, an initiative aimed at helping young graduates overcome interview Phobia and the barriers in Recruitment process through mentoring. She is a public speaker and has been featured on various media platforms including: BellaNaija, SheLeadsAfrica, GuardianWoman, Women of Rubies etc Some of her recognitions include: Top 50 Career Influencers in Africa by The Workbooth Magazine and also a the top 10 Platinum members of Career Influencers. Top 150 Global HR Influencer by Social Micole. Top 100 Career Women in Nigeria by 9to5Chick Top 30 Leading Women in HR by Worden HCD You can reach out to her by sending a mail to: info@careerlife.com.ng and follow her on Twitter and Instagram: @careerlifeng

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