Why Do We Go To School?

This question might sound like a simple one with obvious answers, but if you believe that we go to school to get jobs, then just know you're still living in the era of the stone age. 

 There are many people who have gone to school and acquired better academic qualifications, but the world is still short of innovators, thinkers, Pacesetters, problem solvers, serial entrepreneurs, philanthropist etc. 

 Ask yourself why is this still the case? 

 My Take 

 Unless we change the way we train the youth and make them believe that we go to school not get jobs, the gap of jobless youth will increase relentlessly. I'm my books, we go to school to seek knowledge so that we can plug into already existing systems, but also challenge the same systems as problem solvers, change makers, innovators, philosophy, transformational leaders etc. 

Sometimes I find it fascinating why we train youth on skills that they will never use anywhere or remain with the same skill without any idea of monetization. 

We shouldn't learn for the sake of learning , but rather we should do so with an intention of making transformational change in our life and that of others by challenging the norms, creating new innovations, plugging into already existing best practices etc. 

 Just thoughtful ❤️

 It's either you are working in a space where there is an evolution or revolution of IDEAS. Just thoughtful Sometimes we don't have to create anything new, but what we need is just to give an already existing product a new touch, approach or look, whatever you want to call it. This is where innovation and creativity thrive in UNLEASHING NEXT BIG THING!

Skill Up Master Class At Oasis Mathare #SkillUpMasterClasses

 #QualityEducationLifeLongLearning 

 On Thursday 24th November 2022, I had the pleasure of spending time with 26 young people at @oasismathare Oasis Mathare who are aspiring to become software developers / engineers in future. 

 The session covered the following; 

 1. The job description.

 2. Creating a Curriculum Vitae (CV).

 3. Why they need a portfolio. 

4. The essential soft skills required in the World Of Work (WOW). 

 In December I will also create a day to meet another youth group within Nairobi. Get in touch with me incase you need a youth facilitator who is creative, knowledgeable and passionate about youth agenda

In pictures 

Do More / Be More /Be Different www.wilsenx.blogspot.com 

FAILfaire :- Reframing How We Perceive & Receive Failure.

Generally, there's nobody who wants to be associated with failure. That is why you will find in some workplaces the top leadership will make all efforts to disassociate themselves from any form of failure. 

On the other hand, if they don't blame it on anyone or department they would rather paint a merry picture of success even when failure is at the center of everything. 

 In schools and some workplaces we are also trained to avoid failure at all cost which sometimes comes in the form of warnings, for example, if you fail count yourself fired, out and so on. I would rather change the conversation to, do your research and plan well and execute. If failure happens don't be ashamed to document and learn from every step. 

Incase you are running a start up, there is this phrase or philosophy, (FF) Fail Fast, meaning get all the important lessons from the earliest stage to gain momentum and stability towards the next phase.

Anyway, I came to learn, in some cases, failure is inevitable and it is a great way to prepare for the big wins only if you are keen to pick the lessons at every stage with an open mind and attitude. The fact is, you will never come across any monument erected at any place to celebrate people who tried and failed nor will you find any award in the same category. 

 In any contest people only remember the winners. As time goes the first runners up also fades slowly hence the need to be winners at all times. 

 "Our journey to success is closely connected to many things, and failure is part of it." - Wilson Masaka, Youth Advocate and Social Entrepreneur 

"Failing doesn't necessarily mean you didn't plan, that is why we need to reframe our thinking, perception and reception about failure. " - Wilson Masaka, Youth Advocate Social Entrepreneur 

Failure might have happened because of some unknown situations that took precedence in what you had planned to do that are linked to external environment beyond your control for example the COVID-19 pandemic is a classical example.

To achieve our optimum impact as organisations we should embrace failure as part of the process and allocate quality time to document all the failures that might have happened during a certain period (Failfaire). The only part I can't buy is when failure is made deliberate by not doing what is required. Many organisations are found of creating layers of strategic plans, one after the other without taking a deep dive into the failures that would help them generate new ways of thinking before creating new strategies.

Below Are Five Reasons Why We Should Have a FAILfaire in Our Organisations.

 Here we go... 

 1. Failure creates room for alternatives ways of doing the same thing in a different way (creativity & innovation). 

2. It encourages great performance than in a situation where it isn't embraced which leads to staff faking results. 

3. It helps an organisation understand better their S.W.O.T analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity & Threats). 

4. Create room for personal development and capacity building. Nobody is perfect and if you try you either win or fail and in between there's great learning. 

5. Open our mind to think of meaningful partnership to address the gaps. 

Picture credit https://unsplash.com/@reddalec

I hope starting today, you will plan and target to win and should failure happen, you will take a pause and documents the lessons with an open mind. 

We shouldn't deliberately let things fall apart or encourage failing. We should always strive to recognise failure as part of the things that are bound to happen even after great plans. 

In case you're a youth led or a pro-youth institution part of what I train is organisational culture and documenting failure (this is a new area in many organisations) as one of the subtopics. 

 

Get in touch Do More / Be More / Be Different www.wilsenx.blogspot.com

Heroes Day (Mashujaa Day) Well Celebrated.

Every 20th October Kenyans celebrates heroes' day also known as Mashujaa day to collectively honour all those who contributed towards the struggle for Kenya's independence and continues to positively contribute in the nations development and honour in different spaces in the post independent Kenya. It was a great honour to host the first skill up session for the girls under the umbrella of She Can - I am a sHERO at Wilsen Initiative (Wi). Read more https://wilsenx.blogspot.com/2022/09/she-can-im-shero-project-under-wilsen.html

The Skill Up Session - 20th October 2022 During the Celebration of Heroes Day (Mashujaa Day).

 A total of 20 girls between the ages of 13 and 15 who plays football attended the session. Our main aim is to inspire, connect and educate (ICE model) girls on how they can live a more responsible lifestyle despite the many challenges faced by young girls living in underserved communities. Short Profile of our Speakers / facilitators Our great facilitators / speakers during the session were; 

Kate Syprine who is a mentor at Dream Program and ex-footballer. Read more of her story https://wilsenx.blogspot.com/2011/09/unknown-heroes.html?m=1 

Esther Mazira, She Can - I am a sHERO co-founder and Data Analyst

 Grace Mbaye Training coordinator and Mentor at Digital Divide Data (DDD).

General Overview Of The Session 

The speakers / facilitators were able to share their insightful journeys from education, career, football for development, personal development just to mention but a few. There was also a special hour that we called (GT = Girls Talk) whereby our speakers / facilitators were able to openly discuss issues that surrounds the girl child and gave insights on how to mitigate the same. 

Some of the main highlights during the discussion were for example;

•  Early teen pregnancy.
• Menstral hygiene, self esteem
• Self awareness
• Open talk. 

 Parents Meeting 

To wrap the day we also hosted a parents and guardians meeting in collaboration with Gudush Soccer Academy. We took the parents through some key points on what we do, what we aspire to achieve and also how they can be one of our support pillars towards the development of children that are engaged in our activities that cut across on and off the football field. 

Appreciation

I take this opportunity to thank everyone who made the day a big success and I look forward to hosting this type of events for both the girl and boy child Even though we might aspire to do more, all our activities are subject to availability of resource and required support and currently we sponsor the activities from our own contribution and support from our friends network. If all is in place we would like to hold this even on a quarterly basis whilst providing sanitary towels and other personal essentials to the girls during the session. We believe by that will enable them stay in school and avoid be luade into other distractive activities. 

 Call To Action

 I invite all my friends, wishers and anyone who wants us to collaborate in this journey to help our sisters pursue their dreams by taking the appropriate steps starting now. 

 "I believe in a society were both the boy and girl child are provided with the right platform and resources to work alone based on special need and also recognize the importance collaboration towards creating a society that wouldn't discriminate any gender. This is a society that will ensure a conducive environment for everyone be what they want to be regardless of their gender" - Wilson Masaka, Youth and Social Entrepreneur

 The Wi-Experience - The Story of Self and Us.

 It is easy think of what you do for yourself and a bit challenging to think of what you can do for others and do together based on values. Wilsen philosophy is based on the three pillars with the overriding theory are YOU towards development as follows; 

1.  What can you do for yourself to become better and not bitter ? (Your story) 
2. What can you do for others (Your Aspirations or Vision Beyond Self) 
3. How can you combine effort together with others to create the change that you wish to see? ( Collaboration and Togetherness). 

 Lastly among many thing that Wilsen initiative (Wi) does we also offer pro-bono services to emerging youth led initiatives that are less than 1 year since inception of their ideas. Part of what we offer in this package are as follows; 

1.  Setting the right organization culture. 
2. Resource mobilization 
3. Training and mentorship Among others! 

Here are some of the highlights of the day in pictures!