Inlaks offers automatic employment to 13 trainees in ATM management

Inlaks, an information technology and infrastructure solutions provider, has offered automatic employment to 13 persons that graduated from its IT academy in Lagos. The beneficiaries were trained in the management of automated teller machines.

The company, which provides IT solutions to financial institutions, telecom, oil and gas companies, among others, said the beneficiaries, who were drawn from different parts of the country.

The Director, Infrastructure Business Unit, Inlaks, Tope Dare, said the company decided to train people who were unemployed to fill the vacancy it needed instead of going through the usual recruitment process of employment.

He said, “About six months ago, we needed to expand our workforce to support our automated teller machines at the various financial institutions and we had the option of going into the market to recruit.

“I wondered why we should do that at a very high cost to the company when there are a lot of Nigerians who are not employed and are looking for what to do. I felt we could bring them in, train them and make them assets to the company and even the society,’’ he said, explaining that the step was also a way of giving back to the society.

According to him, the company received about 220 applications when it made its plans public. He added that after an online test was conducted for them, 15 of them emerged successful. He stated that the 15 persons were invited to Inlaks Academy in Lagos for the training, which lasted six months.

At the end of the exercise, Dare said 13 of the trainees were employed by the company, while one of them withdrew at the end of the exercise.The coordinator of Inlaks ATM Academy, Rahmon Alabi, said the training went beyond ATM management to include stock operation, customer service operation and quality assurance.

He said the training comprised two months intensive classroom training and four months of practical in the workshop and field work. The trainees, he said, were paid monthly stipends and enjoyed other benefits, even though there was no formal agreement signed between them and the company beforehand.

“Such is hard to come by, especially when you are not in the employ of the trainer, but we believed in them, and so we encourage them to maximise the opportunity given to them to be a part of this company,” Alabi said.

“I have been amazed with the way the training turned out and I’m confident that when I leave here, I can do a lot based on what I have learnt during the training,” one of the trainees, Chinonso Ikpeazu, said. He thanked the company for the gesture, saying it was a renewal of his hope. He also promised to be diligent in his work anywhere he is posted to.

While advising the beneficiaries to be professional and be good ambassadors of the company, the Executive Director, Business Innovation, Inlaks, Olufemi Muraino, said the initiative would help the beneficiaries to be self-sustaining. “This is the first batch and we are planning academy for other units within the organisation. Our company is prepared to churn out the best breed of human resource in the country,” he added.