AUN holds eighth yearly career/graduate fair

No fewer than 40 industry leaders and potential employers Tuesday participated in the American University of Nigeria (AUN)-organised career fair at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.

This year’s fair, the eighth in the series, enabled AUN students/alumni to interface with blue-chip firms from around the country. About 40 firms, including multinational companies drawn from the telecom, oil & gas, power, transport, health, and other sectors featured at the fair.

They include Airtel, NIPCO Plc, PWC, Nadabo Energy, Skye Bank, Jumia, Deloitte, Education USA, Berger Paints, Main One Cable Company, Egypt Air, Teasy Mobile, Sci-fie Ltd, Transcorp Hilton, PZ Cussons, Nestle, Stallion Group, Voice of Nigeria among others.
In addition to participating in the fair, companies like Dangote Cement, McKinsey & Company (which tests AUN students and alums every year), New Age Network, NTA, Sci-Fi Mobile Technologies, Teasy Mobile, KPMG, GE Energy, and Red Star Express, also took turns to administer aptitude and problem-solving tests to AUN students, alumni, and other prospects.
Representative of the companies also guided the participating students on career and requirements of the market. Speaking at the event, AUN’s Coordinator of Career Services, Ms. Grace Nwokoma, disclosed that the fair was organised to provide students and alumni exposure to career and internship opportunities. Nwokoma opined that a university should go beyond granting graduates degrees to also helping them to chart career paths, make choices, and prepare them for careers.
“We are trying to get our graduates and students close to corporate organisations. The fair is also for those of them that are preparing for graduate school. The companies that are here have seen that our students are doing well in other organisations and that has made them interested in participating.  Believe me, it has been a very tremendous experience for our students and for the companies, because from the onset, we train our students in preparation for life after AUN,” she stated.

According to her: “We have all organisations from the oil industry to information technology and entrepreneurship. It is interesting to say that some of our alumni are now owners of industries and they are here to hire their former colleagues.”

“Of the over 100 of our alumni that participated in the last edition of the fair, over 50 of them have been absorbed, the rest of them are either going to graduate school or want to set up their own businesses,” she added.
Assistant Dean, Student Affairs, AUN, Reginald Braggs noted that the career fair was a way of bringing national and international companies together, under one roof for the benefit of the alumni and current students, to introduce themselves to each other and the objective of the companies remains to find bright students to recruit.
“Our intention is to connect our students and alumni with viable companies. This is of benefit to Nigeria because you have young people who are now having jobs and being of benefit to the country,” Braggs submitted.
He said the exercise was a kind of American concept of bringing students/alumni together so that they can have the opportunity to learn. When we first started it, students did not really know what to expect, but as time went on, we have been able to see the impact on our students.