By Oyinlola Awonuga
The Executive Director of Media Career Development Network ( MCDN) Mr Lekan Otufodunrin has urged media organisations in the country to ensure more regular training of their staff.
Otufodunrin made the call on Wednesday during a courtesy call to the Lagos office of Voice of Nigeria (VON) following the creation of Training department by the broadcast station.
While commending the VON for setting up the new department, he said it was unfortunate that media houses are not giving enough attention to the training of their staff like in other sectors.
According to him, most media houses do not have training departments and when they do, the departments are not well funded and appropriately staffed.
He recalled that the old Daily Times Company had a training school where new editorial staff were trained to ensure that they have necessary skills in addition to their academic qualifications.
He said so much has changed in media operations that require that many journalists are retrained to remain relevant.
“What most of us learnt years ago is no longer what is operating so we need to retrain a whole generation of journalists and it should start in-house. That is how we can ensure that we continue to be relevant,” Otufodunrin said.
The Executive Director said there should be regular training need assessment and evaluation in media organisations to know the kinds of training to the offered in-house or sponsor staff to attend.
He said his organization was committed to providing training but more interested in mentoring and coaching support for journalists to help them maximize available opportunities in the profession.
“Many media NGO’s provide training, but most of the training are grant based after which the journalists may not utilize the skills they learnt. What we try to do is minding the gap between the training and after returning to the newsroom to ensure they don’t forget what they have learnt and utilize the knowledge,” he added.
He commended the setting up of the new training department headed by Deputy Director, Mrs Ugonma Cokey who he said has necessary experience and exposure.
He pledged the support of MCDN and partnership with the department to achieve the purpose for which it was established.
In his response, Director of News, Mr Austeen Elewodalu also restated the importance of training for all staff for media organisations like VON to compete with its counterparts globally.
“Regrettably, the training department is usually the first casualty when the organization is broke, it is not supposed to be the case. It should be well funded to discharge its responsibilities as we need to be at par with our competitors
He said VON has stepped up training of its staff and would partner with MCDN especially in the areas of mentorship.
Acting Director of the Strategic, Planning and Corporate Development, Mr Abdul-Warith Solanke commended the contribution of MCDN to capacity development but called more attention to be given to broadcast training like the print.
The NGO donated some of its publications and other resource materials to the VON Library which is under the training department.
Mrs Cokey said the department was working towards upgrading the Library, and later have an e-library through partnerships and collaborations to become a research and resource centre for both VON and other media houses.
