INTERVIEW: Empowering the workforce through tech education with Winnifred Ola

In this insightful interview with TopNaija.ng, Omobolanle Winnifred Ola, an HR & Operations professional at Utiva, delves into her dual-role responsibilities, the growing demand for tech skills, and the transformative impact of Utiva’s training programs.

Interviewer: Hello, can you introduce yourself, what you do, and where you work?

Response: Hi, my name is Omobolanle Winnifred Ola, but everybody calls me Winnifred. I’m an HR & Operations professional, and I currently work with Utiva, an Ed-tech company based in Lagos.

Interviewer: You mentioned HR & Operations—what does that mean?

Response: My role intersects between being a full HR professional and handling operations. Basically, I wear two hats.

Interviewer: So, what does your role entail exactly?

Response: In my role, I manage our employees and the processes around them—policies, recruitment, payroll, employee engagement, and other general HR duties. I also ensure that the projects we implement as a company are successfully executed. I provide support to my team to complete each project we take on.

Interviewer: That’s impressive. So, tell us more about Utiva—what does the company do?

Response: Utiva is an Ed-tech company based in Lagos. We provide training programs to help people learn premium tech skills.

Interviewer: What type of programs does Utiva offer?

Response: We offer a range of tech training programs in Data Analytics, Product Management, Product Design, and Cloud Computing.

Interviewer: In your opinion, what would you say are the most sought-after tech skills?

Response: That’s a tricky one because pretty much all tech skills are sought after depending on your role or the industry you work in. But one training we do a lot is Data Analytics; we’ve even split it into beginner and advanced classes.

Interviewer: Really, why do you think that is?:

Response: Well, because most roles these days require some sort of data analytics skills. We’re surrounded by so much data now in pretty much everything, and you need to be able to make sense of it. I mean, I work in HR, and now more than ever, I’m required to analyze so much employee data. Organizations aren’t making decisions just because anymore; you have to provide valid reasons backed by data. You need to have basic data analytics skills, like knowing how to use Excel or Power BI to visualize your data.

Interviewer: Who typically takes your training programs?

Response: A lot of working individuals across various roles and industries take our courses. We’re also seeing an influx of corporate organizations registering their employees for our training to help them upskill.

Interviewer: Hmm, talking about corporate organizations, how often do companies register people for your training?

Response: Honestly, not as often as individuals do. Most of our participants sign up for the programs on their own.

Interviewer: Whose responsibility do you think training and upskilling should be?

Response: I believe it should be a shared responsibility between employers and employees. However, a lot of employers don’t necessarily make learning programs a priority, especially in this part of the world. I will always advocate for employers to upskill their employees—this should even be one of your value propositions to your employees. But I also always tell employees not to wait for their employers. If you have an employer that upskills you or values learning and development, that’s great. But you cannot wait for them. The truth is they’ll find a replacement for you so fast if you stop being of great value to them. You need to ensure that you’re always valuable to your current employer and desirable to others. My goal is to always be “poachable.” I want to be so good at what I do that organizations want to poach me.

Interviewer: I like that—“make sure you’re poachable!” Haha.

Response: (Laughs) Exactly! Because the fact is the knowledge you get from upskilling is yours to keep—always. You’re not doing it for the employer. I mean, you’re doing it to be better at your current job, to empower yourself, or even to transition into a new role. But ultimately, that knowledge or new skill is yours. Nobody can take it away from you. So, you have to ensure you’re on top of your game. Plus, the workplace is getting more competitive than ever now. If you don’t upskill, someone will come in and take your place so fast.

Interviewer: How often do you learn new skills or take new training?:

Response: I’m a lifelong learner. I never pass up the opportunity to learn something new.

Interviewer: Oh yeah? How many skills do you have?

Response: (Laughs) Please don’t even start! I have so many mini certifications. Sometimes I actually wonder what I’m doing with them.

Interviewer: Really? Like which ones?

Response: I have a few Data Analytics mini-certificates, a Product Design certificate, a Product Management certificate—I even attempted learning front-end development at some point.

Interviewer: What are you doing with all those? Which career path exactly are you on?

Response: Hahaha, don’t mind me. Honestly, I just love learning stuff. If something intrigues me, I’ll dig deep into it. At first, it was just for the sake of learning, but recently I’ve been more intentional about it. Because I am an HR professional and often recruit across multiple fields, I do training and learn new stuff so that I can better understand the requirements of each or most fields I recruit for and find the right employees for my company.

Interviewer: Does Utiva offer scholarships to learn all these amazing tech skills?

Response: Yes, actually. Utiva partners with bodies like JICA and ACT Foundation, and because of those partnerships, we’re able to offer our courses at an affordable rate. For us, it’s not about the money but about the impact we’re able to make in people’s lives through the skills they learn. A lot of our trainees work in big banks, big tech companies, and the like.

Interviewer: How can people access these scholarships?

Response: People can find available discount options on our website or join any of our masterclasses. We hold them every Saturday morning, and a lot of times after the masterclass, we announce different opportunities and scholarships that people can take advantage of.

Interviewer: Any available scholarships right now?

Response: Yes, we’ve recently launched a new initiative called “Learn Tech with Your Favorite Celebrity,” where we’ll have different public figures join our masterclasses to talk about how people can learn tech skills with Utiva. At the end of the masterclass, they offer some scholarships sponsored by them. So people can keep an eye out for these sessions to take advantage of them.

Interviewer: Amazing, it’s been great speaking with you Winnifred

Response: Thank you for your time as well