nurturing and perfecting talents and skills by eguriase s. m. okaka

-
Nurturing and Perfecting Talents and Skills
By Eguriase S. M. Okaka Talent Talent is the natural ability a person is born with which enable him or her to do well in a specific field. It is also a set of personal characteristics which enhances one’s ability to achieve expertise in an accelerated manner with little or no training. Examples of talents include: • Singing • Writing • Athletics • Pottery, etc. Skill Skill is an ability and capacity acquired through training in order to do well in carrying out simple or complex activities or jobs. It requires knowledge, practice and experience to be able to do well in any chosen career, examples of skills include: Teaching skill, catering, typing and short hand, plumbing, using computers, tailoring, entrepreneurship skill, etc. The Difference between Talent and Skill
Since every child is born talented in one way or the other, it is important to identify their talents early, nurture and perfect them. Talent and skill can be identified, nurtured and perfected through the following processes:  Formal Education: Formal education or formal learning takes place in the premises of the school (learning in classroom) e.g. elementary school, secondary school or university. Formal education is given by qualified teachers. Education is the act or process of imparting acquiring general knowledge, skill, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life. In obtaining formal education, the talent and skill in an individual is identified, nurtured, and perfected. The qualified teachers help the talented individual and skilled students in technical school, polytechnics, and universities to perfect their skills. For example, a talented musician can be helped by a teacher to become perfect in his/her music career.  Apprenticeship: It is a process or an act in which a person learns an art, trade or job under another person. Apprenticeship is also seen as a kind of job training that involves following and studying a master of the trade on the job instead of passing through a formal school. In apprenticeship, the talent of a person is discovered, nurtured and perfected, while in another sense, others acquire skills which are nurtured and perfected. Examples in this regard are carpenters, mechanics, tailors, doctors, etc., who often learn their trade through apprenticeship.  Workshop/Seminar: Organizing seminars and workshops enable people with talents and skills to obtain perfection. Seminars and workshops help people to acquire knowledge from a particular field and interact with expert from a specific field.  Role Modeling: Role model is when an individual appreciate, look up to someone, respect and admires his/her views, ideas and achievement in the society. A person can nurture and perfect his skill and talent when he/she emulates his/her role model. For example a local musician can become a star because he/she copies the pattern and style of another musician who is highly successful and regarded as an idol in the music industry. In this instant, the latter becomes a role model to the former.  Organization of board of directors which focuses on talent discovery and development: These groups of people invest on persons, by way of providing support and guidance that brings out the hidden area of peoples talent. They identify talents and skills in addition to nurturing them to perfection. Skills Acquisition Centers in Nigeria • Industrial Training Fund (ITF): The industrial Skills Training Centers (ISTC) Ikeja, was established in 1983 as Vocational Training Center (VTC). The main objectives are to develop middle level manpower with focus of employability in selected occupational area. (ii) Empower the youths with multi-skills and entrepreneurial skills for job and wealth creation. (iii) Provide and improve training standards and ensure that the right technical and vocational skills needed by the local industries are available. (iv) Certify the trainees with certificate of competence for the labor market. • Crafts Development and Skills Acquisition Center: The crafts development centers are all being housed in properties owned by the National Council for Arts and council (NCAC). The centers are in Lagos, Bauchi, Maiduguri, Kano, Sokoto, Akwa and Ikare. These centers serve as indigenous skills acquisition and knowledge transfer. • National Directorate of Employment (NDE): This directorate was established in November, 1986 but became operational in January 1987. Its primary function is to design and implement job creation programs that will promote attitudinal change, employment generation and reduce poverty. • Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN): It was established in 2003 by the Federal Government of Nigeria, to promote and develop the country’s micro, small and medium-sized enterprise sectors of the Nigerian economy and to also provide entrepreneurial training. Consequences of Undiscovered Talents and Under-Developed Skills Talent is a natural endowment or superior ability possessed by an individual. The talent in individual needs to be discovered nurture and developed by the individual, community or society in order to facilitate the rapid growth and development of the country. Failure by the individual, community and the society to discover individual talent and skill will have the following negative effects: • Under-Employment: Under employment occurs when one does not have a job that reflects his or her training and financial needs. Undiscovered and undeveloped talents make people to work where they are not supposed to work. For example, a person who is talented in craft work find himself or herself as retail trader. • Poverty: Poverty is a state or condition in which a person or community lack the financial resources and essentials for a minimum standard of living, individual, family or community that fails to discover individual talent and skill in addition to developing them will definitely be poor. • Unemployment: Unemployment is a situation where people to who are employable are seeking for jobs, and they are unable to find jobs. When the talents and skills of the people are not developed, it becomes difficult for them to get the required job or get jobs at all because every employer would like to employ qualified and competent hands as his employee. • Economic Stagnation: It is a prolong period of little or no growth in an economy. Any community or country that fails to discover and develop the talents and skills of her citizens is bound to have slow economic growth which is characterized by high rate of unemployment. • Lack of Self-Reliance: An individual that fails to discover and develop his/her talent and skill will not be self-reliant as he/she is bound to continually depend on others for survival. • Under-development of the society: A country that refuses to put in place programs to identify, nurture and perfect talents and skills of her citizens is bound to have slow development in all sectors. • It Reduces Productivity: Reduced productivity means reduced performance while at work. Productivity is a measure of efficiency of a person, machine, factory system, etc., in converting inputs into useful outputs. When the talents and skills of the people are not discovered and developed, it will reduce their performance at work place thereby making them to be inefficient. Benefits of self-reliance to an individual • To be self-reliant gives an individual the power to take decision on his own. • It enables the individual to have confident and dignity. • It helps the individual to discover his talents and skills and develop them for his/her benefits. • Become truly fulfilled and contented. • It enables an individual to cultivate a strong character. • To be self-reliant eradicates poverty from an individual. • Self-reliant improve an individual’s standard of living. • It makes an individual to be creative and achieve self-actualization. • To be self-reliant emancipates an individual from slavery and exploitation. • It eradicates laziness and redundancy. • It enables an individual to have self respect, and love himself or herself. • It enables an individual to take advantage of resources available to him or her. • Self-reliant creates the capacity for an individual to become a leader who leads others. Benefit of self-reliance to the family • It enables the family to take decision independently without consulting with others. • It makes the family to be self-sufficient. • Being self-reliant enables the family to set good examples for the children to emulate. • Being self-reliant gives family members self-confidence and in the process eliminates laziness and redundancy. • It helps to emancipate family from slavery, intimidation and exploitation. • It helps to bring out the talents and skills of various members of the family. • It improves the standards of living of the family. Benefits of self-reliance to the society • Self-reliance enables the society to take decision independently. • It makes the society to be self-sufficient e.g., having enough food for the family. • It eliminates slavery and exploitation of its resources e.g., raw material (crude oil) by other developed nations. • It enables society to live a legacy for the youths to emulate. • It helps the society to create employment and increase productivity. • It helps society to have good image and good relationship with other society. Consequences of not being self-reliance • Lack of self-esteem. • Brings underdevelopment. • Brings laziness, redundancy and poverty. • It prevents one from discovery his/her actual talent. • It makes one not to be creative and not to achieve self-actualization. • It makes one to depend on others for survival etc. Natural and Human Resources as the Wealth of a Nation All nations of the world are endowed with resources by nature. Resources may be may defined as something or supplies which a person or a country has at his/her disposal to improve or increase his/her wealth. Resources are gifts of nature which are grouped into natural and human resources. Natural Resources The natural resources of a nation are the resources that are available in man’s natural environment. They include: water, land, plants and minerals. These resources are utilized by nations to increase their wealth. For example, plants like rubber tree produce rubber latex which is used in making products such as tubes, tires, balloons etc., earns the nation foreign exchange for development. The mineral resources are natural substances obtained from the soil which include: iron, gold, petroleum, etc. Nigeria earns huge revenue from the sales of crude oil to the outside world. Human resources are the people who make up the workforce needed for the production of goods and services for the country. Nigeria is blessed with numerous talented and skilled persons who are professional in different fields such as Engineering, Medicine, Arts, etc. with these abundant human resources properly harnessed; Nigeria will be one of the greatest among the Commonwealth of Nations in the nearest future. Questions • What is Talent? • List five examples of talent which people possess’ • State two consequences of a situation where talents are not developed. • What is skill? • List five examples of skill people acquire. • In a tabular form outline the difference between talent and skill. • Define talent. • List two types of talent with two examples of each. • Discuss how natural and human resources enhances the wealth of a nation. Eguria.blogspot.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Comment from message gained, lessons learned, and suggestions to improve this blog.