A knowledge management centre, Fast Track Academy, is advocating the need to integrate and include the basics of leadership in the curriculum of tertiary institutions.
The Academy, which underscored the importance of leadership skills as critical to all aspects of life, called on the government to include leadership skills in the tertiary institution curriculum as students graduating with only technical skills is not enough to make them thrive.
According to the Academy, graduates of tertiary institutions need other leadership capabilities and competencies to be able to excel in the workplace. The Chief Executive of the Academy, Oladapo Akinloye, therefore, said that the need to impact leadership knowledge on both fresh graduates and those who are already working necessitated the establishment of the academy five years ago, to train people so as to give their best in the workplace environment.
Akinloye said: “Fast Track Academy is a one-stop knowledge management centre or organisation. And, the reason we call it a one-stop knowledge centre is because we look at the entire spectrum of organisations, individuals and institutions, among others, about how we can help them to develop and acquire the knowledge that makes them stand out in their industry.
“From training, learning, interventions to coaching and mentoring, as well as other services we also provide, Fast Track Academy, a spin off from Emerald Zone, established a decade ago, which has also been in existence for about five years now is the learning and training arm of Emerald Zone.” He spoke about some of the specialised learning packages offered by the academy to its array of clients, stressing that the academy helps individuals at all stages of their careers.
Akinloye added: “Fast Track Academy is a learning centre and we have a couple of programmes that we have already developed, which include the graduate development programme which is for fresh graduates who are just coming out of the institution.
“We prepare them for the world of work because if we look at our school curriculum, students could graduate with a degree in law, banking or whatever, but those skills and competencies that actually prepare them for the marketplace. Hence, Fast Track Academy has come up with a graduate development programme that would bridge that gap, and that anyone coming out of higher institutions could be prepared adequately for the marketplace.
“We have the Manager Development Programme for those who have left school, are already working, and are growing in their career. What makes you a manager? How can you begin to develop your leadership competencies that make one able to work with other people, and supervise other teams? We have the manager development programme which is also a specialised programme to fast-track these.
“We have what we also call the Entrepreneurial Development Programme (EDP), one of Fast Track academy products, where those people who are reaching the twilight of their careers, or those who do not want to work in organisations but want to acquire entrepreneurial capacity to start businesses and their businesses would not be like those startup businesses that would fold up in one or two years. All these things are specialised products offered by the Academy.”
According to him, beyond that the academy has tailor-made programmes for organisations that have been packaged to meet the needs of their employees. Akinloye noted that already the Academy had outlined a couple of programmes to be carried out this month (June), even as he recalled that in the last two weeks, it organised the Lagos Career Fair where the participants spoke about certain skills they needed to develop.
However, to meet the needs of our clientele, we have digital marketing, sales master class, HR master class, finance master class that will come up between June and July, this year. “Leadership is a very broad topic. We all need to continue to hone our leadership skills as individuals, especially as professionals.
We are talking about a curriculum on leadership as a course or a training in our higher institutions. It may be basic teaching about basic leadership skills, requirements and competencies. In most institutions we have what we call the General Studies (GNS) and it will be a brilliant idea if we introduce leadership skills development even at that level so that as students are graduating they have these basic leadership skills that begin to set them up for leadership in life,” he stressed.