Aderayo Onipede Nathaniel
In a world where developing the right skill set and work experience is increasingly important in the workplace, people around the world are beginning to take up internship roles. The importance of an internship experience cannot be overstated. Today, employers favor prospective employees who have done not only one internship but multiple internships. A university education will serve to propel a graduate into a profession by conferring a degree, which demonstrates an academic proficiency in various theoretical and practical examples of ways that a job might be performed. An internship makes the classroom’s abstract theories, skills and learned examples concrete by placing the student in a real life work situation with real live co-workers performing actual professional tasks, which the job encompasses.
I recently chatted with one of such individuals who sees internships as critical for practical skill development is Aderayo Onipede Nathaniel. He is a student of the University of Lagos, and a designer who won the Wecyclers design challenge which was hosted by Stutern; an online platform that connects interns with employers. With over 1 year of experience on the job, Rayo says the experience has been amazing.
Aderayo (c) winner of our design challenge, Boluwaji (l); Head of Business Development, Wecyclers and Taiwo Ayanleye; Co-founder, Stutern
At Wecyclers, he works with the communication team to produce materials and publications for a wide range of audience. Rayo’s materials have helped the team in several projects including the largely successful #Clean9ja campaign and the recently launched Independent Contractors program. For him, Wecyclers is doing “God’s work” by keeping waste away from landfills, reducing pollution in turn giving people a cleaner environment and creating value from waste by rewarding subscribers and working at Wecyclers has helped improve his skill and multi task better and as well get to learn more about recycling and an opportunity to explore several other fields and industries working on projects with teams/Wecyclers partners and sponsors from a wide range of industries.
Rayo had words of advice for future individuals interested in picking up an internship role; Get the right skill and know what you want to do, use online platforms to learn and develop your skill, stay relevant and updated in your field of choice.
Ebube Okechukwu