The importance of information technology has been visible in the conduct of businesses. With the introduction of computers, the business world was changed forever. Using computers and software, businesses use information technology to ensure that organizations run smoothly. Information technology is used across several critical units to ensure seamless work flow. The accelerated growth in the global market also enables businesses to rise up to the challenge of embracing information technology.
The mainstay of powerful nations across the globe is technology. Much of the transformations and giant strides in development of such nation are by-product of their technological inclination. Talk of nations like Japan, South Korea etc with marginal or practically non existence natural resources to depend on, but have turned around their fortunes through technology.
The dream to take Nigeria to greater heights in technology has been with successful regimes from the military to civilians. But somehow this has not yielded much dividends, probably due to bureaucratical bottle necks and the fact that the goal was government driven. However, fortune seems to be smiling on Nigeria in its quest for technological relevance in the community of nations with the renewed interest and more investment in technology by the private sector. Good enough, it is usually said that government or public sector is meant to put in place good policies and provide good enabling environment for the private sector to hit the ground running. Right or wrong policies, the Nigerian private sector seems to be rising up to the challenge of changing the narratives of advancing the nation technologically.
There is no begging the fact that the attention Nigeria is receiving for its incursion into technology arose out of the dexterity of private sector and some individuals that are committed to launching Nigeria into the league of technologically driven nations. Among this group of Nigeria is a quite former banker that have left the cubicles where the order of the day is making money out of managing others wealth.
e-learning and Human capital development
The shrinking economy and cut down in the budget of companies on human resource training has become a worrisome trend. This is one verifiable area that informed the emergence of e-learning to address the shortfalls in human capital development. It is intended to make e-learning a qualitative and affordable for employees. It is indeed a solution to reduce training fee for corporate organizations. It is also a solid platform to make training affordable as over 100 soft skills courses and over 20 professional courses are offered.
A pace setter and an individual determined to ensure this e-learning revolution takes a firm root in Nigeria, Adewole Oriade, the Chief Executive Officer of Dexnova the parent company of Dexlearn is poised to raise the pedestal of human capital in Nigeria.
Oriade has taken it as a strong cause upon himself to change the story line of how Nigerians can access and acquire skills and requisite trainings through technology. With his team, he has launched Nigeria into the global e-learning platforms, with the delivery of Dexlearn LMS. The initiative which is the latest platform coming out Nigeria to join several global e-learning platforms that have millions of subscribers worldwide.
To this IT oriented and dynamic Nigerian, the greatest thing to happen to any nation is to have easy access to sound education, training and skill acquisition. Mr. Oriade believes that a nation can only rise in proportion to available skilled and technological sound minds she has. Yet this asset must have been exposed to good training which should be without hindrances and encumbrances. Training and skill should be both soft and technical, but without easy access and flexibility in its operation, the needed base for technological advancement of any nation would have been knocked out, Mr. Oriade opines.
Piloting DexNova Consulting, owners of Dexlearn LMS from Lagos and Port Harcourt Oriade believes beyond the pre-market entry training of human capital, the dynamics of the society requires adaptive continuous training that is flexible, giving room for skill honing, exposure to latest development in chosen field without necessarily leaving ones desk to access. In the words of Oriade, “the design and modus operandi of Dexlearn LMS took into cognizance this dynamics without causing disruption to deliverables of those who enroll while still working”. Of course, you can’t take it away from Oriade that his background as a certified project management professional in addition to his Bachelor’s Degree in Science (B.Sc), an MBA and several years of consulting for several blue chips organizations has impacted on Dexlearn LMS. Surely, he does understand the essence of timeliness in project delivery as well as keeping cost under control, which many organizations interested in exposing their key personnel to training and further skill acquisition are interested in.
The Edge of Differentiation in e-learning Offering
A major unique selling point of the platform is that it is home grown. It is developed by Nigerians for Nigerians. It has several advantages over the others. The offerings are quality educational contents paid local currency.
Some distinguishing feature of this innovation is that professionals can both hone their skills and acquire other soft skills through the instrumentality of this global platform originating from Nigeria. It has a banquet of over 100 soft skills courses on as well as professional certification courses such as PMP Exam Prep, Prince 2 Exam prep, ITIL, Six Sigma, scormstudy, CBAP/CCBA. Besides, Dexlearn LMS uses SCORM package that uses less data and even keep playing even when offline. Other accruable benefits to professional in choosing Dexlearn LMS platform are course guide, instructor led, self-paced training, progress tracker, simulated assessments, participants’ discussion forum, downloadable training materials, participants online and offline interaction.
A major objective is to have several soft skills and have robust learning management system for soft skills. Technical skills should be developed alongside the requisite soft skills in order to collaborate and communicate with others
It is without gainsaying that Oriade and his team has brought out ingenuity which Nigerians are known for in another dimension. A man of little words, Oriade says “Nigeria should not be lagging behind in reaping the full benefits of what technology can offer including development of sound human capital development that would in turn take Nigeria to her technological height”. Hear him, “Nigeria should not just be giant of Africa in words, there should be practical demonstration which should not be controvertible, and I am sure application of technology in raising skilled manpower is very germaine in this stead”.
Adewole Oriade has over 15 years of corporate management experience in project management, organization strategic development and business process improvement in various sectors of Nigerian economy such as banking, oil & gas, marine and consulting. He currently facilitates project and strategic business management courses and conducts business improvement assessments; he also helps clients establishing business improvement process methodology.
Adewole is a consultant to United Nations Office in Geneva (UNOG) on Project Management for Sustainable Development, he developed and facilitates Project Management for sustainable development for United Nations Institute for training and research (UNITAR), he has also trained participant from African Management Services Company (AMSCO)-a UNDP project.
With a Master degree in Economics and MBA from Obafemi Awolowo University, Adewole has the power of abstraction to focus upon the essential features of management problems and to construct rigorous argument to help evaluate ideas. He is also certified as a Project Management Professional by the Project Management Institute, USA.
Adewole has served as President of Project Management Institute (USA), Nigeria Chapter and is also a member of Chartered Management Institute, UK and International Institute of Business Analysis, Canada.
