What Does GraduatePro Really Do?

Hello Facebook, Twitter, WordPress family,How are you and yours? I hope all is well with you. If so doxology, lol. (How many of you wrote letters like this? If you didn’t you should call me Aunty ☺

On a more serious note now, a neighbour of mine walked up to me two days ago and we had a very interesting conversation I’ll like to share with you. Please read till the end o, God is watching you ☺He asked about GraduatePro; that he really liked it but didn’t really understand what it was about and what I was trying to do. In my mind I thought, okay, didn’t you read the About Us page? But then he said he was asking because my objective and what he is seeing on the page have no correlation. That got my attention so I asked him to explain further.

He said in my note ‘I’m Doing Something’ (If you missed it you can read it here:https://www.facebook.com/notes/naomi-lucas/im-doing-something/10151086330638779) which he got via an email blast, I’d promised to do some things. But then he visits my page and he sees my posts and wonders, what has Today In History, or Did You Know or Be Inspired got to do with giving people jobs? People are desperate, they want jobs, he said. I laughed but stopped when I saw he didn’t think it was funny. I was thankful for the feedback but also wondered how many of you might have the same concerns, hence, this note.

So what is GraduatePro?
GraduatePro is an initiative I established to combat unemployment and unemployability by providing graduates and job seekers the skills they need to find the jobs and do well in the workplace.

The intention is to eliminate three barriers to learning I have identified: Location, Money and Convenience. We want to make sure every graduate has access to information irrespective of his or her location, how much they have or what time of the day it is. Tall order right? Actually, not really!

We will do this by making access to training content available via mobile, Internet and print media in addition to physical trainings in strategic places.

There are three projects we are working on presently and we hope to roll out by end of January. I’ll tell you more about it soon, but in the meantime, we make sure you have access to relevant thoughts on our blog that will impact you if you take out time to read them.

GraduatePro is not:
A recruitment or job giving initiative. We don’t give fish. We train fishermen. You have to develop your own competitive advantage by applying the knowledge that you get through your interaction with us.

When my neighbour asked what the relevance of all the posts he’s been seeing are to his job search strategy, I laughed. Today’s workplace is knowledge based. Knowledge is not what you were taught in school, it is the sum of everything that you know, people you’ve interacted with, materials you’ve read or listened to or watched; everything. Because of this, you should want to know a little something about everything ‘cos you don’t know what will come in handy when you’re in a fix.

A friend of mine went for an interview for a top marketing organization in Nigeria. He said he was petrified because the MD looked menacing and came across as very unfriendly. The interview was formal and difficult, until the MD asked about his hobbies and listening to classical music was one of them. It was like turning on a switch after that. They ended up spending like an hour talking about Beethoven and Mozart. And when the interview was over, the MD said ‘only geniuses and people of superior thinking listen to classical music. When can you resume?’

Moral of the story? Be a broad learner; those seemingly random pieces of information you gather will serve you when you least expect it. So when next you see a ‘Did You Know’ info on our page, smile and tuck it somewhere in that brain of yours.

If you are narrow minded, biased or negative or set in your ways or believe you are a victim of the system or walk about feeling like the world owns you something, we may be of no use to you. But if you’re ready to learn and recognize that there may be genuine reasons why you never get the jobs you’re interviewed for or have difficulty excelling in the workplace, then welcome on board.

Like I told my neighbour, my intention is not to convert anyone or change their mindset, I’m stretching my hand out to those who know they need help and are not too proud to ask for it or take it when offered.

I hope with this few points of mine, I have been able to confuse convince you, that…lol

P.s- If you have feedback or questions you need answered or would love to contribute, feel free to post it or reach out to me.

Have a fabulous November.
Sincerely
Naomi Lucas