National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has started the training of 1,650 unemployed youths in various vocational skills.
Mrs Olayinka Olayemi, State Coordinator of NDE in Oyo, said this on Tuesday in Ibadan during the orientation programme for the 2nd batch of 2020 Basic National Open Apprenticeship Scheme (B-NOAS) trainees.
According to Olayemi, the Directorate, under the leadership of its Director General, Dr Nasiru Ladan Argungu, is determined to make unemployed youths in the country skilled and proficient in their respective chosen vocations.
“The Directorate has consciously tailored its programmes and schemes to meet the challenges of the emerging world and in-line with the developmental agenda of President Mohammadu Buhari’s administration”.
The NDE coordinator said the training of the 1,650 unemployed youths, selected from the 33 local government areas of the state, was another milestone in the history of employment generation in Nigeria in general.
She further explained that the NDE’ skills acquisition initiative was focused at developing the strength of the youth, providing opportunities that would make trainees progress to another level of confidence and self-esteem.
“Today, in all, 1,650 trainees, drawn from across the 33 local governments in Oyo State, registered and documented in various trending skills for three months intensive training, which commenced on September 21 and is expected to end in December”.
Olayemi recalled that the Directorate recently trained 250 women from Irepo/Olorunsogo/ Orelope Federal Constituency on Cosmetology.
She added that another set of 200 women drawn from Iseyin/ Itesiwaju/Kajola/Iwajowa Federal Constituency, were also trained likewise.
According to her, the trainings were initiated by the NDE to bring succour to women who were at the receiving end of the aftermath of the Coronavirus pandemic.
She appealed to all stakeholders including states, local governments, parents, non-governmental organisations and philanthropists to support Federal Government’s efforts in the reduction of unemployment in the country.
In his remark, the Director, Vocational Skills Department, NDE headquarters, Mr Yakubu Mani, lauded the Federal Government’s initiative to engage thousands of unemployed youths in vocational skills that would make them self-reliant.
Mani, who was represented at the occasion by Mr James Solomon, a staff of the Directorate, commended Oyo state government for always ensuring that it remained a pacesetter state.
He also admonished the trainees to take the training seriously in order to benefit from the wealth of experience of the facilitators.
The NDE Southwest Zonal Director, Mrs Shafaru Awulat, who was represented by Mrs Christiana Olowogbemi, charged the trainees to imbibe the culture of hard-work, discipline and shun any negative acts.
Awulat urged the trainees to seek knowledge from their trainers, take the issue of attendance seriously, stressing that the free vocational training was their “own share of the national cake”.
She also appealed to the master trainers to strive harder to impact sound vocational skills to the trainees.
The Head of Department, Vocational Skills Development,(VSD), Oyo NDE, Mr Paul Ilori, explained that the training which involved technical and vocational skills would be for a period of three months.
Ilori advised the trainees to utilise the golden opportunity bestowed on them by government to fulfill their dreams of being skilled and self-reliant.
Three of the trainees, Fadilat Ayoade, Faith Edebiri, (Hair dressing), Oluwatobiloba Fabeku (Fashion Designing),expressed optimism that the training would enable them become employers of labour and change their respective living standards for better.
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