Engineering the Future Workforce

Oare Ehiemua, CEO of OPL Academy sits down with Ada Irikefe for a special PWC podcast - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WGr_qdOimls&feature=youtu.be

Ada Irikefe: Hello, my name is Ada Irikefe, and you're listening to the Experience Pod. The Experience podcast series discusses the adoption of relevant emerging technologies and trends for impact-oriented professionals and individuals who demand realistic and thought-provoking perspectives on the opportunities and challenges presented by these phenomena in our unique environment.

Today's series is happily titled, ‘Engineering the Future Workforce’. As we know, upskilling remains an important prerequisite to ensure relevance in this digital economy. It also helps close the unemployment gaps.

We constantly hear about Nigerians need to focus on infrastructure development spurred on by the collapse of critical infrastructure. The disruption team thought it will be important to talk about the construction industry and delve into a less discuss aspect of the industry – Education.

We've now seen education models emerge predominantly with the software companies and now, with construction. Today, I have Oare Ehiemua, the CEO of OPL Academy, whose organization brings this model to the construction space. Welcome Oare.

Oare Ehiemua: Thank you Ada. Pleasure to be here.

Ada Irikefe: Let's discuss a little bit about what made you go into the construction space and could you talk more about the services that OPL offers.

Oare Ehiemua: It all started with just the whole issue of youth unemployment in Nigeria, and we have a population that is not letting down anytime soon. Our population size keeps increasing and it's just causing tremendous strain on already strained infrastructure.

I have a passion for education and I just felt if there's one industry where I could probably look into that is large enough to absorb unskilled talent, and put them to decent work, it's probably the construction industry. I looked at macros and the macros were not looking good. You find that there's a huge housing deficit in Nigeria. For instance, World Bank estimates that we need to produce about 850,000 houses annually over the next 20 years, to just bridge this gap in housing. Quality of housing is bad.  Two-third of our population in the urban area lives inside substandard housing.

Another issue, again, was just around the skill. You find that the population of very skilled construction workers, blue collar construction workers which is our focus area, are probably aged on average between 45 to 50 years now, and you don't have enough of the younger skilled workers coming on board now to close that gap.

For me, construction was a no brainer especially given my passion for education and I just feel that if we can address the skills gap, then we could sort of have the domino effects on all the other macros that are looking quite negative at the moments within the industry. As to why we decided to go into this now, I just feel we are sitting on a time bomb, and if we don't address this now, it's going to cause serious issues later.

Our mission is simple. We want to bridge the skills gap in the construction industry and raise the standard of skills because we find that education within the sector is so poor.

We run like a professional ethics program, which is more service oriented because we believe that these people are servicemen. And we get high potential workers, we upskill them with these professional ethics, and then we connect them to jobs with reputable construction companies. Through our apprenticeship program, they get hands-on training with these companies and they also get exposed to best practices and leading technologies.

Ada Irikefe: That's fantastic. I think it's about time really, and it's interesting you mentioned the demographic, as we know the average youth is probably about 17. And, if you're saying that the current industry is tailoring towards 40-45 then that means it's a complete imbalance there. How much progress have we made in building the construction industry in a digital world?

Oare Ehiemua: So that's a good question. I was reading somewhere that when you think about the construction industry, it's such a large industry. Well, historically it has not been very innovative. In more developed countries, you're finding technology being used to foster safety on sites and people are using artificial intelligence to be able to detect if people are wearing their proper equipment and the tools are being placed in areas that could be hazardous. You also find that technology is being used to improve collaboration with team members, to also increase efficiency on projects.

In Nigeria and the construction space, the gap is certainly widening. So, we don't really hear much of AI being used in this part of the world. But what we do find is technology being used to foster communication and you find the simple things like emails or WhatsApp being used for client communications. In more sophisticated companies they might use Slack, which is one of like the emerging team collaboration tools that we use. For projects, you find software are very common like Autodesk for instance. You find that many architects or quantity surveyors knew how to use these tools. Again, younger companies might opt for easier to use tools like Monday. So it's not exactly substitute but you find that it's good for tracking.

Ada Irikefe: I know we've talked about upskilling, and we've talked about the importance of upskilling. We believe it's only going to increase in gravity with our rising population, like you said, and globalization activities.

How do your trainings evolve with global standards? Especially with advancement in technology. You’ve talked a little bit about the tools and software that you currently use but within the blue-collar construction space. I hear WhatsApp you know, and WhatsApp, I guess is widely used, but not a lot of construction workers will take a sophisticated phone to a site. So how do you upskill these guys and how do you ensure that there's that synergy with what's happening globally?

Oare Ehiemua: I think that's a great question Ada. One of the greatest assumptions we made studying training for blue collar workers was exactly that. Something as simple as your phone. We assumed that all blue-collar workers are probably going to be using phones that don’t have features that allow for this. But I would say that one of the biggest ways that we've managed to build our alumni base for all the people who have been trained (and we have trained about a hundred people). This has been a pilot year. We have trained a hundred workers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians and masons. We hope to close out the year with 300 and we want to increase to 1,000. One of the ways we've managed to just engage our alumni and continue the conversation, post training, has been through WhatsApp. About 90-95% of our alumni are on WhatsApp, so they all have phones that allow for this. And this is actually very important for us because when we think about where we're heading to.

And again, speaking about technology, we're also looking to create a digital plan that's called Labor Hack. Labor hack is going to serve as an online platform that will connect people who have graduated from OPL Academy to end users. These could be construction companies; they could be households. But the idea behind that is to give high potential blue-collar workers access to projects on an ongoing basis. We are going to leverage their ability to use smart phones to do that. You also look at Uber and how many drivers probably had to get smartphones because they decided that it was a tool that they needed to get their job done. But going back to the question, for construction work and for blue collars because the skills that they need are so hands-on, we have to ensure that we're offering very practical training.

What we do in the classroom is just a month of training and it's basically just to expose them to cognitive skills that they need, but majority of the work is now done on site. By connecting them to leading construction companies, through an apprenticeship program, they can get that hands-on training that they need. We accredit all the construction companies we work with because we need to ensure that they're getting exposed to the right kinds of skills and the right kinds of technology.

Within our classroom, we use a lot of videos. And this is one thing that we find that students really appreciate it because it's not something that they're used to having, but we find that really helps in just fostering engagement.

Another thing that we do is for continuous learning, we always encourage them to use shared learning digital platforms. We did engage a plumber in our class who learned the basic skills through YouTube. We find that they are inclined to learn that way as well and which is very key because if we can build a steady stream of video content that teaches these people, then you find that even beyond the classroom, they can always refer to these materials.

And social media is another one that's very amazing. While they are browsing and everything, we encouraged them to fall sites where they can keep abreast of the latest technology and emerging trends. And we also partner with product companies. We find product companies are willing to leverage our alumni base to teach them about products that they're bringing into the market.

 These are some of the ways that we're using technology to try and bridge the gap.

Ada Irikefe: That's fantastic. Obviously, your curriculum is forever evolving just to accommodate the new skills that are coming into the market. Great. We've talked a bit about technology and how it's being used in your space. I mean, one of the things we do here at the experience center is use emerging technology to reimagine the possible.  I know that in the construction industry, rework and underbudgeting are common challenges in the construction space. What technology have you identified can boost productivity in the construction space?

Oare Ehiemua: Very good question. The first thing I would like to say is blue collar construction workers are critical to the success of any project. You can have the brightest architects come up with the most amazing design but if you don't have blue collar construction workers that can execute, that design just remains a dream.That’s the first thing I would like to point out. And we do identify with the fact that lack of skills within the sector could create a lot of reworks – a lot of failures in the process that could waste a lot of time and money. And technology, especially in the developed countries, is playing a huge role in trying to bridge that gap.

You have things like virtual reality. And you find that companies abroad use virtual reality to recreate what the space could look like for architects, for instance. Clients come in and then they see the space, they see the colors, they see the layout and then they decide, yes, this is exactly what I want. That way you get closure quickly and then by the time you do build this out, you find that you have less of that back and forth. Another area that technology is being used is also just with regards to trying to imagine spatial dimensions and also in terms of material planning. You find that if you don't get those things right, you will have structural defects. And you have technology that's being used as well by architects  to give you that precision. And in planning, you find that also been taken into account.

Here in Nigeria, a lot of the work is still work in progress. It's a heavy investment. And you do find that our wastage levels are tremendously high. We do need to bridge the gap in that regard.

Ada Irikefe: When we talk about automation and robotics, it's more about loss of jobs, what are your thoughts around robotics and automation playing a huge role in your space?

Oare Ehiemua: This question makes me smile because it's a question that we do ask some of the people that we interviewed and every time the response is the same, “Yeah. Technology can’t replace us, and, it's because you still require that human input”. I agree. I completely agree. I don't think the technology will ever replace completely 100% of the human function especially roles that require you to do some kind of cognitive thinking. These things are skills that humans have and enable them to adapt that robots do not necessarily have. I do believe that technology is increasingly being used, especially robots to just increase efficiency in the job, to reduce wastage levels and just as a cost measure as well. For instance, you do find now that you have 3D printers. 3D printers that can create homes in 24 hours at a fraction of the cost using a fraction of the workers.

Ada Irikefe: Do you think we'll get to that in Nigeria? Using 3D printing to create?

Oare Ehiemua: Well, the good news is that a lot of these 3D printers do not really require tremendous sources of power to use because of batteries and stuff like that. It might not be too far off, giving our power constraints and everything. But I really do wish that we could think more in that direction, especially again, going back to housing deficit, we do have to come up with innovative ways of bridging the gap and materials as well. You find that there are innovative materials being used now that are just more ecofriendly as well, just easier to put together, and if we could employ more of those things, then we could go a long way here.

Ada Irikefe: Totally agree. Off the hot seat when it comes to emerging technologies and trends. What was the last prediction you got wrong?

Oare Ehiemua:  Going into OPL Academy, one thing that a lot of people said was, how are you going to control these blue-collar workers? You are a female in a male dominated industry. Are they going to listen to you?

And our experience has been the opposite. We find that the youth are just looking for a channel. They are so hungry for a channel that's meritocratic and that is just willing to investment in them. And when they see that, they sit up and they put in the work required. I'll tell you that attrition rate is tremendously amazing. And we do find that a lot of our workers come back with testimonials about how our training has changed them, not just on the job but in their families, in their homes. It's tremendous. I would say that that's one prediction that probably has not played out.

Ada Irikefe: What's one view you seem to very few people agree on?

Oare Ehiemua: I would say how quickly Nigeria could probably reach its potential. I would say now that brain drain is a very serious thing. A lot of people have given up on this country and are moving out. And I mean, you can't really blame them. Everyone has their reasons. But I would say that if you talk to a number of them, it is probably because they just do not have a clear line of sight to how quickly things could improve. But for me, I think that transformation is happening every day, and it's just with people creating their own oasis of sanity and not just waiting for some big events to happen that brings around that change. So as people go out and get exposed, you find that they are bringing their experiences and skills back home, and, and things are improving across different sectors. I would say that's probably one view that many people don’t agree on.

Ada Irikefe: Our previous guests, Yomi Awobokun, the CEO of Enyo has a question for you. He would like to know how your business is using mobile technology, cloud computing, and machine learning to make sure you have positive outcomes for your business. I know you've touched a bit on it, but maybe you want to address him specifically.

Oare Ehiemua: I guess I would speak more to where OPL is going and kind of our sister company that's coming up now, which is Labor Hack, the digital platform. So currently we have a database of about 5,000 construction workers, and these are both blue collar and white-collar construction workers. And we use a database, a CRM tool to manage them. We have all the information right down to their local government area. Right. And we're hoping to be able to mine this data to be able to create some kind of map that tells where construction workers are across the country. If we can do that with data lacking in this country, and we think it could go a long way in just helping us plan better, especially how to deploy our talent in areas that they're needed the most. I would say with digital technology, with this platform, we really want to increase the visibility of highly skilled blue-collar work to the end user. That’s one way we were using digital technology to do that.

Ada Irikefe: We talk about disruption and talk about disruption being interrelated. in that respect, what's one perspective you would like to get from our next guest?

Oare Ehiemua: We're going to keep it fairly broad. Maybe just simply to know what change means to them and trying to understand that from a perspective of whether it's more of scope, whether it's more of depth or quality. I'm just trying to understand how people think about change. Again, going back to my previous point about their views or many people's views on Nigeria. It’d be interesting to know how do people see change and what does it mean to them?

Ada Irikefe: Fantastic question. Thank you for bringing so much clarity into this space. I mean, it's something that we’ve deliberated on. It's funny when we talk about the construction space, we never really think about education and I think you're doing an amazing job by upskilling, and giving people opportunity, to better themselves and also better their product. We're all victims of not so great outcomes when it comes to construction as what I think you're doing an amazing job. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you.