Forty-seven companies have enlisted as the Pan Atlantic University (PAU) holds its first undergraduate Career Fair on Thursday, February 15, 2018. The Career Fair will convene at the Ibeju Lekki permanent campus of the University as it plans for its first undergraduate graduation in July 2018.
The theme of the PAU Career Fair 2018 is “Industry meets talent; bridging the gap”.
Participating firms come from a broad spectrum. They include Argentil, Ascentech Services Limited, Brandeye Media, Businessday, Caritas Communications Limited, The Guardian, Chapel Hill Denham and Falcon Energy. Others are FBNQuest Merchant Bank, FCMB, GTBank, KPMG, Nestle plc and Nigerian Bottling Company. Also participating are Precise Financial Solution, Primlaks, Simeon’s Pivot, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Sterling Bank and Zoto Limited
Careers and Internship Manager, Nkiru Ukachukwu, said the fair would feature 75 undergraduate students and 40 full-time postgraduate students participating as a prelude to their graduation. PAU will graduate its first set of first degree holders from Mass Communication, Accounting and Business Administration. The MSc class is comprised of persons specialising in Marketing Communications, Media Enterprise and Writing for the Media.
The Careers and Internship Manager said the Fair would serve as a platform for companies “to access a pool of qualified traditional and non-traditional candidates without having to advertise” while it would “give students an opportunity to learn more about potential employers and the opportunities available”. It would also allow companies to “save time and money by enabling recruiters to zero in on exceptional candidates quickly rather than using the scatter-shot approach of general advertising”.
Mrs Ukachukwu added, “The objective of education in our university is the well-rounded formation of the human person. This is why an essential component of every programme is the inclusion of a good number of courses in the humanities. We also seek, by deliberate design of the programmes, to inculcate and groom the entrepreneurial spirit in our students and participants. The university aims at nurturing individuals who are professionally competent, creative and enterprising, zealous for the common good and able to make free and morally upright decisions and who thus act as positive agents of change in service to society”.
Twenty-two of the 47 firms would have physical stands at the Fair while others are participating in advertising in the event brochure and promotions.
The Federal Government approved the institution as Pan African University in 2002, but it changed its name to Pan Atlantic University in 2013. The Lagos Business School, which commenced in 1991, became its first School.
From running postgraduate and professional education programmes, Pan Atlantic University began undergraduate education in 2014 with courses in Accounting, Business Administration and Mass Communication. It has added Economics as well as Information Science and Media Studies. The School of Media and Communication offers Masters and PhD programmes in Media and Communication while Lagos Business School runs a master’s in Business Administration.
PAU now has three schools − Lagos Business School, School of Media and Communication, School of Management and Social Sciences − and the Enterprise Development Centre.