The Federal Government says it is working on plans to train five million youths annually on vocational skills to make them self reliant and reduce employment in the country..
Ms Abiola Arogundade, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education, said this at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday.
Arogundade said that her office was collaborating with key government Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) to actualise the plans.
She said that the target was to train five million youths spread across the six zones of the country annually, through a partnership between the Industrial Training Funds (ITF), the Ministry of Labour and Productivity and the Ministry of Youth Development.
“The partnership is to enhance skills development and gainful employment, while the essence is to empower the country’s youths by making them self reliant,” he said.
She added that the partnership would also be extended to the Presidential Amnesty Programme aimed at training Niger Delta youths.
The senior special assistant said that her office had inaugurated a pilot training scheme for 300 inmates of the Kuje Correctional Centre tagged “the inmates entrepreneurial fund”, toward empowering them with skills to make them self reliant after their jail terms.
”We are rehabilitating them to make them become lawful and abiding citizens, especially those that are almost completing their sentences.
”This initiative not only imparts essential entrepreneurial skills, but also facilitates a seamless transition into the workforce upon release, supported by pre-secured grants for inmates.
”We will replicate our efforts in other correctional centres in the country haven done with Kuje and the Suleja Correctional Centre in Niger.
”Kuje has 723 inmates; we intend to train 500 inmates in every correctional centre in the country after which we will give them N500,000 to startup businesses,” she said.
Arogundade said that the training would last from one to nine months.
She said that her office was also working with multinationals companies in Nigeria to train youths on the needed skills to facilitate their employment with the companies.
”Our aim here, is to have skilled workforce for them when they come in. All we need is a bit of push and a bit of training.
”Our main target is out of school children, but even our graduates can also take advantage of the trainings,’’ she said.
She said that her office was also working with the House of Representatives Committee on Polytechnic and Colleges of Education on possible ways of introducing entrepreneurial skills in schools.
“There is an ongoing social media competition for the ”unlock” programme aimed at empowering youths by giving them a grant of N500, 000 with entrepreneurship training for novel business idea.
”My office is also hosting a mining training for 1,000 people with guaranteed jobs of a minimum salary of N500, 000 monthly,” she said.