The University of Abuja has unveiled a mentorship scheme to help new students understand their roles in the university and ensure they succeed after graduation.
The mentorship scheme which is being run by the university’s Centre for SIWES Student Mentoring and Employment aims at developing and preparing the career of students to impact on the society.
Speaking during the official launch of the scheme with the theme, ‘Building a Total Person For Sustainable National Development’, the university Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, said the scheme would help produce quality graduates with specialised skills to reshape the country.
The Vice Chancellor who was represented by Professor Bello Ayuba commended the students for massively attending the programme.
He said, “The launch of the Scheme in this university is an epoch-making history which is tailored towards reshaping the skills of students.
“We admit students, at the end of the day we graduate students. We always want to graduate students with good skills, the kind of students that can contribute to nation building, the kind of students that will be useful to themselves and the society generally.
“So in doing this, the university of Abuja management is making a greater deal of effort to create this Unit and the unit has been up and doing trying to reshape the skills of the students and the mentors alike. So what we are doing for them is an important landmark achievement towards the transformation of the entire university.”
He advised the students to always live above board and be good to themselves, as well as continue to fly the institution high whenever they find themselves.
The director of CSSME, Grace Anibasa, said the programme which started more than two sessions actually pairs first year students with mentors who were from 200 and 400 levels every academic session to help guide them through the academic journey.
“The scheme is so structured that it captures not only the students academic life but a holistic approach taking care of every other aspect of their life.”
“In today’s conventional world very many people don’t know what it means to work and these students are taught what it means to work, how to work and how to become even employers of labour themselves through the pillars that teach them how to manage money and raise it productively even while they are on campus and this is a Scheme that support some other centres,” she said.
A member of the students mentoring board, Professor Mike Ikupolati, the former Nigerian Ambassador to the Gambia, said any society that wanted to grow fast must be one that cared for the youths, most especially the students.
