NEW HORIZON COMMISSIONS N150M RESOURCE CENTRE IN BOWEN UNIVERSITY

By Emmanuel Elebeke
Lagos based IT training institute, New Horizon, in collaboration with Bowen university, Iwo, Osun state last week commissioned a N150 million IT international certification and e-business resource centre at the university.

The Programme was aimed at equipping the students with International certification- based IT/e-business skills training, to make them employable at graduation.

Managing director of New Horizon, Mr. Tim Akano described the programme as a land mark achievement for the university and the students in particular.

He said that the centre became necessary because current trends had indicated that education institutions must equip their students with the language of the time, which is technology.

'As a people we must rise beyond producing consumers of knowledge to people who are creative and productive. If we must become champions, we must raise our standard,' Akano said.

Akano who decried the 51 million estimated unemployed youths in Nigeria, maintained that the people that will rule the world must be those with IT skills and knowledge and charged all universities in Nigeria to make computer studies compulsory for their students, irrespective of their different field of study.

According to him, the centre would serve as a doorstep to IT knowledge to the students and has rock-bottom priced skills acquisition packages that will enable the students to acquire highly-sought international certifications alongside their respective academic disciplines, thereby boosting their market readiness without having to waste precious time and huge resources on going for such training after graduation.

He said that the scheme enables a seamless synchronization of academic and professional competencies that will boost the employability and entrepreneurial opportunities available to successful participants, right from their undergraduate period.

Other benefits of the scheme according to him include: Earning five times more than only academically certified graduates and ability of the graduates to blend easily and secure good jobs anywhere in the world.

Some of the equipments commissioned at the centre include: 6 large computer laboratories with Complete high-end Systems, international exams testing center, conference rooms, administrative rooms, server room, business center among others.

The international courses to be handled at the centre also include: Oracle SQlllG, Cisco technologies CCNA, information security, Microsoft business packages, Comptia A+, EC-Council CRM, SCM, project management, object oriented programming using JAVA, VB.Net, Dreamweaver and Flash.

Responding, the Vice Chancellor of the university, professor Timothy Olagbemiro said that the partnership with New Horizon was additional commitment of the school to adding a distinctly moral dimension to tertiary education in Nigeria'.

'Presently, information and Communication Technology (ICT) is now a key factor in any institution that wants to make a positive impact in academics. Without it, even libraries cannot function properly and therefore may become useless as a research centre, in this 21st century.