Meet Akin Abolaji, start-up coach and vocational skills consultant
Akin Abolaji is the founder and managing director of Ownsie Investment International Company Limited, an investment company involved in environmental consulting, real estate, as well as oil and gas.
Abolaji is also the founder of Talent Builders Vocational Institute (TBVI) that trains and mentors entrepreneurs. The institute started in 2012 and is located in four places in Nigeria, including Canada.
The geologist-turned-entrepreneur was inspired to establish this business by the influence of his mother and the desire to be financially independent even as an undergraduate.
“I was inspired to establish TBVI in 2006 while I was still an undergraduate, out of my desire to be financially independent. I cofounded the business with my mother who also wanted to raise a generation of independent youths,” Abolaji explains.
His initial start-up capital was from his mother and his own personal savings.
According to him, he also had other capitals that helped in growing the business from its early stage to where it is today.
“I had the four start-up capitals: Idea, capacity and character and cash. All these cumulatively brought TBVI to where it is today,” he says.
Since starting officially in 2012, the institute has schooled over 100 individuals through the vocational and entrepreneurship training and over 20 are movers and shakers of their industries.
“I started having protégées as far as 2006, during my businesses ventures in school, but officially, I started training young entrepreneurs in 2012 when Talent Builders Vocational Institute was officially incorporated.
“Hundreds of trainees have gone through the vocational and entrepreneurship training and are using the acquired skills to meet their personal and societal needs, but over 20 have been confirmed to have started and running viable businesses as a result of skills acquired under Talent Builders.”
Abolaji initially started with vocational skills such as catering, tailoring, tie and dye, knitting, hand crafts, cosmetology, computer appreciation, bead making, barbing, hair styling and make-up. Later on, he upgraded to holding different classes on packaging and marketing, assessing finance for new business, basic business management skills like accounting, book keeping, as well as business plan/proposal writing.
“Overtime, I noticed an anomaly. I realised that youths who are highly skilled in some vocation/technical areas are still unengaged/unemployed and few lucky ones are eventually taking up menial jobs. So we introduced trainings on ‘How to Start Different Businesses with a Vocational Skill You Possess’.
One unique thing that stands out from his business is the compulsory free entrepreneurship skills he offers and the follow-up after training.
“We follow up to ensure they start viable ventures from trainings acquired from us. In fact, we have a mandate to ensure that every uneducated trainee we have is put through the Use of English class and Basic Use of Computer, free of charge. These cost us more, and many of our competitors are not ready to expend more resources doing it,” Abolaji discloses.
Abolaji further says that despite the success being recorded, the institute still encounters challenges.
“The major challenge peculiar to my line of business is perception. Some parents who discover weakness in their children’s academics would rather ‘patch’ them along. When the children are unable to cope, they would eventually be directed to a roadside place to learn a skill or trade where only a few eventually succeed. Many a time, they do not come to a place like ours where that weakness can be converted into strength.
“Secondly, at the primary and secondary education level, the vocational/entrepreneurship training embedded in the school curriculum is majorly ineffective as the ‘free education’ policy in most public schools hinders the school from placing a financial demand on the students for the training, and no budgetary provision for it from the government,” he points out, adding that many private schools are yet to adopt the training.
At the tertiary level, most government universities (especially federal) only give their students entrepreneurship seminars without hands-on skills training, he observes.
He recommends that government should embark on a re-orientation and sensitisation campaign on the importance of vocational and entrepreneurship skills training as an integral part of education.
“They should make provision for the public primary, secondary schools, tertiary institutions to engage experts to train their students on vocational and entrepreneurship training and also make skills acquisition compulsory for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC),” he suggests.
Abolaji is a firm believer in building young entrepreneurs because, according to him, they contribute to the economy of Nigeria, reduce unemployment rate which is still high and also fill the value-chain gap of all businesses in the country.
He says his institute has grown in capacity and staff strength.
“We have also grown in the number of training outlets and currently have two additional branches (Ibadan and Regina office in Canada), along with the head office in Ile-Ife. The institute has also grown in the number of available skills, and a production outlet for some skills for the trainees to gather industry experience during their internship programmes,” he discloses.
He advises individuals to embark on vocational training business as it is a lucrative one.
Bunmi Bailey