The management of Casting Crown Company (3C) has set machinery in motion to build the skill sets of at least 10, 0000 undergrads and young professionals across multiple disciplines in 20 selected universities in the country.

Dr. Gbolahan Pearl Oyelakin, made the disclosure at the train-the-trainer programme for staff of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), in Lagos recently.

Oyelakin, who himself is a United Nations certified project manager and sustainability expert, said there is a dearth of project management experts in the country, which is a critical skillset inevitable in the 21st century at the world at large.

According to him, Casting Crown Company in conjunction with University of Lagos Faculty of Engineering presents a Train-the-trainer programme for staff of the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Environmental Sciences.

This is a critical step planned towards the actualisation of empowering 10,000 students in selected Nigerian universities with project management skills, Green Building EDGE certification and sustainability management skills and building information modeling skills for the next five years, he said. 

“We have a vision and that’s to empower 10,000 students and young professionals in the next five years. That’s our target. We want to empower them with project management skills, building information modeling skills and also sustainability tools.” 

“The reason for that is we discovered that in the professional industry, most of the students, when they come out to practice as young professionals, usually don’t have what it takes to solve problems. I’m talking about wicked problems now. 

So, right from when they’re on campus, it’s good for them to acquire skills that will enable them to be problem solvers in the industry. And we noticed that critical skills that they need to acquire for them to solve problems include project management and also building information modeling tools.

“And of course, because of the need for us to also push the agenda of the United Nations in mitigating the impact of climate change, that’s why we’re also including sustainability measures into it. 

“And we have adopted the EDGE programme, you know, as a sustainability tool that we’re going to use to equip the students in orientating them towards environmental behaviors that they need to acquire when they’re practicing.”