The acting Director General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Mr Kunle Obayan has advised Nigerian youths to embrace skills acquisition for self-sustainability, saying acquiring vocational skills is key to tackling current unemployment crisis.
Obayan who spoke on the occasion of the National Directorate of Employment special day at the 37th Kaduna International Trade Fair said the federal government is placing less emphasis on white collar job, there is need for youth to embrace vocational skills to fit into the new drive of the government.
He revealed that a total of Thirty Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy Four persons who passed through the various vocational skills acquisition programme of the directorate are now contributing to national development.
“I wish to use this opportunity to encourage all unemployed persons to acquire a skill and also take steps to become self-employed through the practice of such skill, as the federal government has demonstrated its commitment to job creation through the various skills acquisition programme of the National Directorate of Employment.” Obayan counselled.
Meanwhile, in continuation of its skills acquisition training initiative for employment creation, the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has commenced the training of unskilled and unemployed persons in various vocational skills in rural communities nationwide under the Community Based Training Scheme (CBTS). The training which is in its third year of implementation will last three months. It is also unique in the sense that the skills set are environment specific and demand driven.
According to a statement by NDE’s deputy director, information and public relation, Edmund Onwuliri, the training is designed to check rural to urban migration, provide marketable skills for school leavers and dropouts with a view to generating employment opportunities for them which will lead to wealth creation, poverty reduction and equally curb societal crimes and youth restiveness occasioned by unemployment.
According to the statement, a rural community has been selected from one of the three Senatorial Districts per state for the implementation of this scheme countrywide.
It reads in part, “About One Thousand, Eight Hundred and Fifty (1,850) youths particularly those from poor and vulnerable households will be provided the opportunity to acquire specialized skills that are in high demand within their immediate localities at the rate of Fifty (50) persons per state and the FCT. This strategy is aimed at improving the rural labour market and matching job demand and supply inter-relationships.
“The CBTS will give prominence to emerging skills within the projected growth sectors like construction skills such as tiling, POP works, interlocking stones, Screeding, etc. All successful persons will be resettled by the Directorate at the end of the training period with equipment and cash as soft loans to commence small scale businesses of their own using the freshly acquired skills. The NDE plans to run two more cycles of the CBTS initiative before the end of 2016.”
It will be recalled that the minister of Labour and Employment Sen. Chris Nigige had stated that the vocational skills development programme of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), will be maximally utilized towards job creation for the unskilled and unemployed Nigerian youths.
According to him, “using the already exiting 76 NDE skills acquisition centres nationwide, and those of other ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government including states, the vocational skills development programme of NDE will be strengthened to provide employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed Nigerian youths.
According to the Minister “the era of white collar jobs is gone and it is our duty to now re-create the blue collar job which entails manual activities in the farm, mines and construction sites, and the pink collar jobs which entails services provision by those who have the requisite skills in painting, tile and marble laying, electrical wiring, advanced mechatronics for automobile repairs, information communication technology services, including GSM repair and garment production amongst others
Ngige added that his ministry collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will play a significant role in the diversification of the nation’s economy using Agricultural Skills Training Centres and Agricultural Parks operated by the Directorate across the nation to develop pool of agriculture based business men and women.
Speaking further, the Minister emphasized that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to ensuring that every facet of the Nigerian economy receives adequate attention in order to contribute maximally to the economic diversification initiative of the Federal Government.
In his words “in our quest to realize the set goals of our economic diversification, adequate planning has been made in the development of the critical sectors of the Nigerian economy, particularly in the agricultural, manufacturing, solid minerals exploitation and tourism amongst others. On mining we will partner with the ministry of solid minerals to convert the so called illegal miners to a formal group for decent work.”
No comments:
Post a Comment