The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) on Thursday began a massive skill acquisition training for 600 youths in Ekiti State under its National Open Apprenticeship Scheme.
The skill acquisition covered fashion designing, shoe and bag making, GSM repairs, decoration, knitting, events planning, beads stringing, computer and bathing.
Also, the Directorate under the Small Scale Enterprise disbursed 25,000 each to 5,000 women in tie and dye category and 85,000 each to 15 artisans to start up their businesses.
Speaking at the orientation ceremony for the beneficiaries in Ado Ekiti, the NDE Director General, Dr. Nasiru Ladan disclosed that the programme was purposefully designed to empower unemployed youths for self-reliance.
Ladan, who was represented by Mr. James Solomon, stressed that the mandate of the Directorate was to banish poverty through creation of job opportunities for the unemployed youth.
He noted that vocational skills were central to human survival in any country with high unemployment rate, appealing to the benefeciaries to make use of the opportunity provided them to create wealth and become employer of labour.
The State Coordinator Mr Adeoye Olusegun stressed the programme should be seen as a tool for poverty reduction, wealth creation and employability, urging the trainees to be appreciative, diligent and creative with the skills to be acquired in order to cope with the existing realities in the societies.
Olusegun, however, called on the beneficiaries to be of good conduct and cooperate with the trainers in the course of the training exercise.
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“You are expected to use this opportunity to launch into being entrepreneurs and employers of labour. See yourself in a better light as from today
“NDE has a success story of making employers of labour in various sectors and I strongly advised you to be part of that success story
“Don’t joke with these training. They will help you become self-reliant and useful economically. As you are empowered, you stand the chance of equally empowering others. Your future is now. Don’t waste it on frivolities, “he said.
Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Miss Fapohunda Sarah and Victor David commended the Federal Government and NDE for initiating the programmes, saying it would help in reducing over dependency of youths on white collar jobs.
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