In the wake of the fourth industrial revolution and as Nigeria joins other nations in adopting the digital economy, the importance of knowledge and acquisition of digital skills cannot be overemphasized. It is common knowledge that there is a widening skills gap between the quality of computing graduates produced and the skill sets sought by the industry. To this end, Spiritan University Nneochi is partnering with ICT big wigs in Digital skills education first of which is the International Business Machines (IBM) in bridging this skills gap.
The West African Skills and Institutional Representative for International Business Machines (IBM), Mr Mayowa Adeoti visited the Spiritan University Nneochi on the 3rd of June, 2019 for a one day Innovation Day Campaign. The Innovation Day Campaign exposed students and faculty members to skills in the emerging technologies: Block Chain, Big Data Analytics, Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence, IoT and Cloud Computing.
In his remarks the Vice Chancellor Spiritan University Nneochi, Very Rev Fr Prof Remy Onyewuenyi CSSp, enjoined staff both teaching and non-teaching to jump unto the “IT bandwagon” as being Information Technology savvy is a vital ingredient to being relevant in this Digital Economic era. He applauded the collaboration between the AITP and IBM and encouraged both students and faculty members to seize this rare opportunity for self-improvement and empowerment.
Faculty members were also full of praises for this opportunity of bringing such digital skills training to the eastern part of the nation. The Dean, Faculty of Arts, Management and Social Sciences, Spiritan University Nneochi, Dr Martins Ezeamama stated that irrespective of disciplines, digital skills are required for job efficiency. He expressed optimism that this initiative will further provide the faculty members in the South East the much-needed knowledge and skill set to enable them to produce employable graduates.
The Innovation Day was fully interactive, with real-time demos of solutions available on the IBM cloud platform. Overall, the experience was very rewarding. The Vote of Thanks was presented by Mrs Chioma Chigozie-Okwum, of the Department of Computer Science, Spiritan University Nneochi.
Accompanying photos attached:
Courtesy/Familiarization Visit to the VC, Spiritan University Prof Remy Onyewuenyi, by the IBM representative, Mr Mayowa Adeoti.
A cross-sections of students paying rapt attention during the demos.
Staff and students at the Innovation Day
The Vice Chancellor, Spiritan University Nneochi, Very Rev Fr Prof Remy Onyewuenyi CSSp, flanked by faculty members and the Innovation Day facilitation team from IBM