‘Don’t stay idle if you must wait for a white collar job’

Can you briefly introduce yourself?My name is Wale Tejumade. I am a corporate trainer, speaker, life coach and author of a bestselling book, “Overcoming Examination Failure”. I inspire lives through my speaking and life coaching platforms.I attended Federal Polytechnic Ilaro where I studied accountancy, and later proceeded to Lagos State University, where I had my […]

Can you briefly introduce yourself?
My name is Wale Tejumade. I am a corporate trainer, speaker, life coach and author of a bestselling book, “Overcoming Examination Failure”. I inspire lives through my speaking and life coaching platforms.
I attended Federal Polytechnic Ilaro where I studied accountancy, and later proceeded to Lagos State University, where I had my first degree in same discipline. I am a certified e-commerce consultant. I also hold a diploma certificate in human resource management from the United Kingdom (UK). I worked in two leading banks in the country before I ventured into management consulting five years ago.
I am at present the Lead Consultant of Verbal & Visible Concepts (VVC), it’s a management consulting firm that I own. We are into corporate trainings, recruitments, brand strategies and business management. I am also a Senior Partner with Inspiro Consulting. I am presently based in Lagos State.
Why did you quit banking to be self employed?
I had the pull to leave two years before I left. Management consulting and human capacity development are my passions. Banking didn’t allow me the time to be all that I desired to be, but above all, my eventual exit was as a result of divine directive.
How has it been since you started working on your own?
It has been great. The fact remains that entrepreneurship has its challenges, but nothing compares to having fulfilment in what you do and making impact in lives and organisations doing it.
What is your advice to unemployed graduates who are hell bent on getting white collar job?
There is nothing wrong with wanting a white collar job, what is wrong is being idle while waiting for the white collar job. So I encourage everyone to get something to do however little.
Why do you think we have many unemployed graduates in the streets of Nigeria?
From experience, whenever we do recruitment, we hardly find competent people. Most graduates have no ability for the jobs. Truly, there are not enough jobs to go round the number of graduates our institutions churn out every year, but it will be shocking for you to know that, even with the few jobs available for grasp, there are no competent hands to handle them. How do you place a supposed graduate who cannot even express himself in English? This is the challenge; most graduates can’t show enough skills and abilities to match up the few jobs available.
What is project PYE all about?
 Project Pass Your Exams (PYE) was launched in the year 2009 and was established to address the decadence in the education sector with a bias for secondary schools.  It has a special focus on the incessant mass failure in WAEC/NECO Examinations. It is an avenue to contribute our own quota to national development knowing that students will be better in the future as a result of our effort. Yearly, we do a tour of certain number of schools, charging, inspiring and motivating the students on how to attain excellence in an examination.
What is the result so far?
There is no gainsaying the fact that the performances of the students of the schools we have visited are better-off as a result of Project PYE. Because we lack sponsorship, we are unable to do as much as we would have loved to do and that is also why we have toured only Lagos. We look forward to being received in other states of the country too. The project’s major focus is a revolution in the education sector of Nigeria. We have toured quite a number of schools in Lagos, and this include Kings College Lagos, Keke High School in Ifako Ijaiye, Methodist Boys High School, Dairy Farm Secondary School among others.
Our drive is also not limited to Secondary Schools, even though we have a bias for them. Project PYE has also been to some higher institutions, and these include, UNILAG; LAUTECH, Ogbomosho; Fed Poly Ilaro; Yaba Tech and Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta among others.
What are the factors responsible for examination malpractice among students?
A number of factors are responsible for malpractices, chiefly are the parents. Research has shown that it is parents that aid malpractices in most cases. Some even go as far as registering their children/wards in ‘special centres.’ Also, the same canker worm of corruption that is prevalent in the country has also found its way into our schools and institutions of learning. One may also want to add that students these days have a lot of distractions around them, one of which is the social media. As much as the social media is good, I can say that it has not been favourable to the growth of education in Nigeria.
What can be done to curb malpractices?
Just one thing: the home! A sane society is a reflection of a sane home/family and vice versa. Everything that is wrong can be addressed from the home. Let parents be responsible themselves, and let them also take responsibility for their children/wards.
Government needs to put measures in place and not compromise standards. Also, corruption needs to be fought without paying mere lip service to it. When there is no one to accept bribe, there will be no one to give it.
What is your own assessment of Nigeria’s education sector?
My assessment is simply the obvious. There is decadence in our education sector. Quality education like we used to have is gradually giving way.
How would you compare studying in the UK and Nigeria?
There is no comparison, by any standard. It may interest you to know that Nigerians go to even poorer African nations to study. This of course, is a reflection of the bad state of our education.
Do you have other projects apart from the Project PYE?
Yes, I do have other projects apart from Project PYE. For instance, lofty heights is the brand platform on which my coaching business thrives while the second project, ‘The Excellent Leaders Summit’ is targeted at raising leaders of excellence in our tertiary institutions.
How do you cope being a trainer, speaker and life coach?
Combining training, speaking, writing and coaching altogether is not such a challenge, because frankly, all these gifts and skills are interwoven. I am naturally gifted at them. Apart from that, these are my natural habitats, they are my passion and so I can do them by God’s grace seamlessly.