The Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Prof. Olufemi Peters, has implored the Administrative, Higher Executive and  Executive Officers of the university to take advantage of their training with a view to improving their communication skills.

Peters stated this on Monday, September 9, 2024 while declaring open a 3-day Executive Officers and Executive Officers at the university's headquarters, Jabi, Abuja.

Represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Administration, Prof. Isaac Sammani Butswat, Peters said that "these three days' training is on 'Communication and Report Writing Skills' for administrative and executive officers communication. Broadly, the two method of communication, the verbal and indeed, the written communication, now which one is more important between the two?

"You will discover that the written communication is more important. You can talk about and go away with it; your errors will not be quickly detected but when you have written, it will be scrutinised. In fact, your spellings will be checked, the meaning of your words will be checked in a good dictionary. Therefore, take this training serious especially in your report writing.

"The VC has approved that there should be training and retraining in line with the vision and mission of the university. You have to think outside the box. Use Artificial Intelligence (AI) wisely. Al should not make you lazy. Make improvement in your reporting. We thank the VC for organising a training like this; maximise it and take advantage of it."

Also speaking, the Registrar, Mr. Oladipo Ajayi, thanked the VC for his visionary leadership as well as making training and retraining of staff a routine exercise.

Oladipo added that the essence of the training was to bring about improvement in the way things are done even as he implored the participants to ensure there is improvement in their respective offices after the training.

Earlier in her welcome address, the Acting Director, Staff Training and Development (ST&D), Mrs. Eunice Riki represented by Principal Assistant Registrar in the directorate, Mabel Madu, thanked the management for organising frequent training for members of staff.

She also extended her profound gratitude to the facilitators from the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations as well as the participants for accepting the invitation to participate in the 3-day capacity building workshop.

The participants at the workshop themed: "Communication and Report Writing Skills" were drilled on: Communication and Report Writing Skills: The New Trends, Public Speaking Skills, Communication in the Digital Age, Interpersonal Communication, Advanced Report Writing and Crisis Communication: The Best Practices.

The workshop, which featured questions and answers as well as interactive sessions, was facilitated by seasoned Public Relations Practitioners from the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Abuja.

The highlight of the workshop was the book presentation by one of the facilitators, Dr. Peter Oyeneye to the Principal Assistant Registrar, ST&D, Mabel Madu for her contributions to the success of the workshop.

Oyeneye also presented books to two participants: Assistant Registrar, RETRIDOL, Mr. Christian Ojoma Samson and Administrative Officer l, Directorate of Learning Support Services (DLSS), Inkus Blessing Amali for giving a recap of the workshop