The Skills Hunt Expo 2017; What You Should Know About Today’s Workplace

The Skills Hunt expo 2017 organized by Accelevate Leads in partnership with Safaricom, Legibra, Britam, Moringa School, SAP , McKinsey, Nabo Capital, UON,   MSK and Centum, was held on the 22nd to the 24th of November 2017 at the Nairobi Towers 4th floor starting at 9:00 AM.

On arrival, we found the first group of students presenting their business idea to Centum Group with the aim of winning the KES 20,000 award. The groups included Stockpot who wanted to start an e-commerce for selling low-proceed shoes and clothes in universities and TLC who want to sell affordable food to campus students from a truck. Lessons learned from this session include:

• When pitching or selling idea, you should have the problem and solution defined
• You should also include a revenue model or a cost-benefit analysis to show the profitability of the idea.
• When pitching, don’t forget to mention your unique selling point, what makes you different from the competition? What are their rates?
  

  Marketing Strategy Presented by Stockpot for their E-commerce Venture

Skills Hunt Expo: Wahu Kagwi on Purpose, Passion and Priorities

Next, Wahu Kagwi the incredible singer came on stage to share her story from her personal struggles to how she discovered her purpose. She went on to explain that she doesn’t believe in boxed thinking. Reason why she dabbles in fashion, with her business venture called Afro Siri , and music, all while having fun and staying fit- both spiritually and physically. Lessons learned from Wahu’s talk include:

• It is essential to identify your purpose by looking at your strengths, weaknesses and what you enjoy doing
• You need to have passion for the job you choose otherwise you will burn out
• We should consider getting a mentor to teach us the skills that were not taught in school, e.g. people skills
• Getting familiar with failure is crucial for success. It is only through failure that we learn.

After Wahu’s inspirational story, Paul Kasimu– Safaricom’s Director or Resources and former KQ Group HR director stepped on stage to share the following gems;

Skills Hunt Expo: Paul Kasimu on Trends in The Current Workplace

• There’s talent scarcity with 50% of the student graduating lacking skills and talent relevant for today’s workplace
• The use of disruptive technology is on the rise with majority of organisations moving from legacy systems and going paperless
• There’s need for a global mindset especially since we are living in a global village

Paul Kasimu’s Advice on How to form a culture in the workplace

• Use a language that enforces the culture. Are you winners? Are you caregivers?
• Create rituals to bring the people together
• Use symbols to remind people of your culture
• Tell stories to remind and encourage more people to join your culture

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Paul Kasimu on Skills Required in Today’s Work Place

• Digital Fluency- You need have a clear understanding of the digital space, what it entails, and how to manipulate digital tools to achieve your goals
• Versatility- You should be able to adapt quickly and work with available resources
• Entrepreneurial Mindset- You should think beyond earning a salary. What opportunities exist in the market? How can you solve the problems within the organisation?
• Resilience- today’s workplace is always changing; you need to be aware of your weaknesses and strengths as well as how to handle criticism to build resilience
• Trust- You need to trust yourself, as well as those in your organisation, that you are giving your best and that you can achieve much more.
• Learn to unlearn- The workplace is more dynamic than ever with technology introducing new practices and tools everyday. We must be ready to unlearn so we can learn faster, easier and cheaper ways of achieving our goals.

We broke off for “brunch” to digest all the new things we had learned while interacting with the students and brands.

With our stomachs full and our energy renewed, we headed for the auditorium to learn the crucial elements of personal branding and how our brands can either make or break. Josephine Mbithi, the head of human resources at World Bank led us through an incredible session where we learned the following on personal branding;

• People will judge you based on the first impression so you should always take care of your appearance
• It takes at least twenty positive interactions to get rid of one negative impression
• Your personal brand extends to your online presence, what do people find when they Google your name?
• It is important to craft your brand by asking yourself; what do I stand for? What makes me stand out? What makes me compelling?
  

  Personal Branding Lessons from Josephine Mbithi, Head of HR at World Bank

  Read More: When You Google Your Name, What Comes Up?

  We wrapped up the 1st day of the event at our stands where we interacted with the students. The next two days of the event were nothing short of exciting and inspiring, have a look 🙂

  

  Legibra’s Felix Ochieng explaining the importance of digital fluency in the work place.

  

  Veridiana Wasike- Founder of Accelevate Leads Ltd, and organizer of the Skills Hunt Expo delights at her gift from Legibra.

  

  Positive Reviews from The Students after the Skills Hunt Expo 2017

   

  By the end of the Skill Hunt expo it was quite clear that there exists a big gap between the skills being taught in campus and what the current workplace requires. We believe our 2-month program (which will educate over 300 students to improve their digital fluency and learn about the online work space) will go a long way to bridge the gap.

   

  “We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.”
  ― Stephen King

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