New Horizons trains 20,000 students

New Horizons is investing the sum of N500,000,000 (about $5 million) between now and December 2008 to upgrade the youth skills in ICT in several universities across the country.

Some of the universities that will benefit from the project include: University of Ibadan (UI), Lagos State University (LASU), Babcock, Covenant, Crawford, Crescent, and Lead City Univesities. The fund will be used in acquiring over 2,000 computer systems, software, and other training facilities in the universities.

Mr. Tim Akano the MD/CEO of New Horizons said the company was embarking on this project with a view of assisting the nation in meeting its “Year 2020 Vision,” which is bascially geared at making Nigeria one of the top 20 countries in the world.

He said that Nigeria can only become a world power, if it invests heavily in training the citizenry in the field of ICT. He commented that India, China, Malaysia, and Costa Rica had taken a similar path and they have been successful for taking the critical decision, he strongly believes that if Nigeria follows a similar path it will achieve its vision of becoming a world power before year 2020.

He further said that the initiative been pursued by New Horizons would involve training over 20,000 students on ICT Certification based training starting from September 2008, this is by far the largest number of people in the whole world that an ICT training firm will be training at once.

Mr. Akano explained the basis of the project and the value it portends for the counry, he said that New Horizons was partnering with the universities so as to provide the students with the opportunity of acquiring much needed industry based ICT Certification skills that would make it easier for them to get employment in any part of the world; provide them with the skills to become technology entrepreneurs and wealth creators i.e. create, produce and market hardware and software products and services; make it easier for them to integrate should they travel abroad. It is also aimed at boosting Nigeria’s earning capacity in a knowledge driven, globalised world thereby bringing about socio-economic development and prosperity.

He mentioned the case of Mr. Edward C. Onyenweaku, who was amongst the student trained by New Horizons at Babcock University that got three jobs before going for his NYSC. He also said that students would be taught courses on Software Programming, Multimedia, Networking, Microsoft, Oracle, CISCO etc. All in a hope to produce individuals like Bill Gates & Michael Dell.

 Email This Post