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Tag: skills acquisition

  • Unemployment: Oborevwori tasks youths on skills acquisition

    Unemployment: Oborevwori tasks youths on skills acquisition

    Delta Governor, Chief Sheriff Oborevwori, yesterday, charged youths in the country to acquire skills and financial literacy that would enable them to become self-employed instead of searching for white collar jobs.

    Oborevwori spoke at the Niger Delta Viewpoint Small Medium Enterprises, NDVP-SME Conference 2024 with Theme: ‘Financial Literacy and Skill Acquisition, A Journey To Self Actualisation’ held in Asaba.

    Represented by his Chief of Staff, Prince Johnson Erijo, Oborevwori said acquisition of skills in various fields was a sure avenue for self-development and empowerment, calling on young people to learn from and emulate successful entrepreneurs by starting businesses of their choice.

    He said, “The training of our youths and women in self actualising knowledge and skills to make them economically independent is a most welcome development.

    “The time has come to wean our people, especially the youths, from sole dependence on government for the provision of all human capital development mechanisms, especially through white collar jobs. Government alone cannot employ everybody.

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    “It has therefore become necessary to train our people in various areas where they can become entrepreneurs, grow their businesses and become employers of labour.

    “I am happy this programme will train our people in financial literacy. This way, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs can find their way in independently negotiating and accessing funds to grow their businesses, thereby creating opportunities for them to become employers of labour.”

    He said the State government has trained thousands of youths – male female alike – in skills acquisition in various fields and empowered them to start their chosen businesses on their own.

    “It is noteworthy that this initiative covers catering, fashion, IT, both soft and hardware, farming, manufacturing and the creative industry.

    Earlier, Group Managing Director, Kudimata Nigeria Limited, Mrs Kathleen Erhimu said with 40 years in the financial world, she has dedicated herself to creating value for others.

    According to her, her company started two years ago as a hybrid educational financial service provider.

    Founder, House of Tara, Mrs Tara Fela-Durotoye harped on the importance of relationship, reputation and resilience in the business world.

    Mudiaga Enajemo, CEO of Mudi Africa, said he built his brand for over 30 years with talent and self-confidence and urged Nigerian youths to build on their talent by undergoing requisite training needed to grow their businesses.

    Frank Onosigho, a lawyer who spoke on legal basis for entrepreneurs, said businesses must be registered through the Corporate Affairs Commission CAC, as well as building trust and relationships for excellence and sustainability in business.

    The highlight of the event was presentation of cheques worth N500,000 each to 50 beneficiaries to start up their own businesses.

  • ITF trains 450,000 on skills acquisition

    The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has trained more than 450,000 Nigerians in skills acquisition programmes for employability and entrepreneurship between 2016 and 2018.

    Its Director-General, Sir Joseph Ari, disclosed this in Abuja at a news conference where he presented the ITF 2019 Skills Intervention Programme.

    According to Ari, 90 per cent of the trained Nigerians are in paid employees or entrepreneurs.

    “There is no doubt that unemployment has wrought a terrible damage on all facets of our national life. No reasonable analysis will divorce unemployment from the needless incidences of violence that have claimed thousands of lives nationwide.

    “It will equally be difficult to separate rising criminality and harmful social vices that are being perpetrated by Nigerians because of unemployment and attendant poverty.

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    “Consequently, our population that ordinarily should be our resources has become an albatross because we cannot provide a greater proportion of our population with a source of livelihood,” he said.

    He said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report of last quarter of 2018 revealed the level of unemployment and increase in employment between 2017 and 2018 in the country.

    “The number of Nigerians without jobs between fourth quarter of 2017 and third quarter of 2018 increased from 17.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 to 20.9 million in the third quarter of 2018.

    “This is despite the fact that the number of people in employment increased from 68.4 million in the third quarter of 2015 to 68.72 million in the third quarter of 2016.

    “It also increased from 69.09 million in the third quarter of 2017 to 69.53 million in the third quarter of 2018,” he said.

    According to him, the statistics are scary and staggering and should be a source of worry. He added that the Federal Government had made tremendous efforts to create jobs as reflected in the increased number of the employed as cited in the NBS report.

  • HICC trains 1000 youths on skills acquisition

    Harvesters International Christian Centre, (HICC) has trained over 1,000 graduates in Lagos mainland, Lekki and Epe in various marketable skills under the church’s Harvester Skills Acquisition Programme 7.0 at the HICC, Gbagada Lagos.

    The programme featured training on Apps design, make-up, Apps Development, photograph, Mixology, graphics design, pastry and Digital marketing with 30 facilitators.

    Senior Pastor of HICC, Pastor Bolaji Idowu, said as a faith- based organisation: “We believe Christianity in its human form should not only care about the human spirit but about the person’s body, finance, health, marriage and community in which we live in.”

    He said the Skill Acquisition programme was geared at helping individuals understand and maximise the opportunities the societal and economic realities to be empowered or start a business and or a career of their own.

    “We are committed toward empowering individuals who in turn set the pace in the society. The training seeks to raise and mentor 100 entrepreneurs.

    “Our social intervention programme is not limited to Christians because the problems we face are common. Poverty is not peculiar to Christians alone.”

    He noted that Nigeria has an alarming rate of unemployment at about 70 percent, meaning 7 out of 10 youths do not go to university and those that attend university are not productively engaged.

    “Our approach is simple and tremendously impactful and have done quality research, which is that we are providing skills acquisition programme that is easy to learn, with small start -up capital and there is already a market.

    “We have close 100 people earning N1million per annum from our training, people who  would have been prostitutes, robber and militant youths in our society,” he said.

    He stressed that some of the attendees will be given seed funding upon recommendation by their mentors who will be attached to them after the programme.

    He added the church was willing to partner with government through the Lagos State Employability Trust Fund.

    He said one of the ways to intentionally support SMEs is that 5 percent of all government contracts should be given to company with less than 5 years of existence.

    This, he explained, means that money will trickles into a sector that has otherwise not receive support and SMEs holders will be energise to do more.

  • ITF trains 120 physically challenged on skills acquisition

    The Industrial Training Fund (ITF)  has trained 120 physically challenged persons from six states on skills acquisition.

    They were drawn fromTaraba, Bayelsa, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Osun and Plateau states. The physically challenged were also trained on making foot-wears, repairing phones, making lady’s wig cap, manual clothes design and embroidery.

    While speaking at the graduation ceremony for Skills Training and Empowerment Programme for the Physically Challenged (STEPP-C) in Kaduna, ITF Director-General, Sir Joseph Ari said the training was to empower the physical challenged people in the society.

    According to him, the training will equip them with skills to strengthen them socially and economically.

    “The graduation today of these trainees is our first step in this regard. It commenced in August this year with 120 participants from the states.”

     

     

  • Foundation empowers youths with skills acquisition

    Call to Love Initiative, a foundation focused on social development, has again demonstrated its commitment towards capacity-building and empowerment of youths by organising the second edition of its free Summer Camp for children, in Lagos from August 6 to 11.

    The highly engaging, impactful and exciting week-long training session was tagged: “Making A Difference With Education”.

    It provided a platform for pupils from low cost primary schools in Makoko, a suburb in Lagos, to learn various life-impacting activities.

    The 112 beneficiaries underwent practical trainings in coding and robotics, vocational skills (such as sewing, bead-making, painting), entrepreneurship, leadership skills, etiquette, public speaking, team orientation and organisation skills facilitated by experts. This is aimed at effectively engaging and nurturing the young ones with requisite skills to enable them grow successfully through education.

    Speaking on this year’s Summer Camp, the founder and Chief Executive of Call To Love Initiative, Mrs. Wunmi Benson-Ajia, noted that it provided a veritable platform and unique opportunity for stakeholders, such as mentors, teachers, technical and vocational education specialists to come together and create a learning environment which reforms the beneficiaries, and ensures a more wholesome education.

    She said: “The ultimate goal of the Skills Summer Camp is to cultivate a pipeline of high-performing beneficiaries who will be provided with various mentorship and scholarship opportunities through the course of their education.

    It is worthy of note that prior to this year’s Summer Camp over 70 per cent of the children have never used a computer nor learned any vocational skills.”

     

  • Group empowers youths on skills acquisition

    Call to Love Initiative, a foundation focused on social development, has again demonstrated its commitment towards capacity building and empowerment of young ones by organising the second edition of its free Summer Camp for children, in Lagos recently. The highly engaging, impactful and exciting week-long training session was tagged: ‘Making a Difference with Education.’

    It provided a platform for pupils from low cost primary schools in Makoko, a suburb in Lagos, to learn various life impacting activities. The 112 beneficiaries underwent practical trainings in coding and robotics, vocational skills (such as sewing, bead-making, painting), entrepreneurship, leadership skills, etiquette, public speaking, team orientation and organisation skills facilitated by experts. This is aimed at effectively engaging and nurturing the young ones with requisite skills to enable them grow successfully through education.

    Speaking on this year’s Summer Camp, the Founder and Chief Executive of Call To Love Initiative, Mrs. Wunmi Benson-Ajia, explained that it provided a veritable platform and unique opportunity for stakeholders, such as mentors, teachers, technical and vocational education specialists to come together and create a learning environment which reforms the beneficiaries, and ensures a more wholesome education.

    According to her, “The ultimate goal of the Skills Summer Camp is to cultivate a pipeline of high-performing beneficiaries who will be provided with various mentorship and scholarship opportunities through the course of their education. It is worthy of note that prior to this year’s Summer Camp over 70 per cent of the children have never used a computer nor learned any vocational skills.’’

    Call to Love Initiative was founded in 2010 with a mission to enrich lives through social development. It supports under-privileged children by enhancing their access to impactful growth and balanced development and employing a targeted approach of interaction and delivery of projects that drive lasting solutions and contribute positively to transforming the development of beneficiaries.

    This year, the Summer Camp was made possible through the support of corporate partners like Oracle Academy which sponsored the Coding and Robotics classes by providing computers and training to the Camp facilitator; Nigerian Red Cross Society which provided the venue; Cadbury Nigeria which provided refreshments for the children; Biobak Kitchen which supported with provision of breakfast and lunch for all beneficiaries, Chutes and Ladders Limited which supported with renovation of the Camp Venue.

     

  • Skills acquisition, only way to self-employment

    Lagos State Government yesterday skills acquisition is the only way to self-employment.

    Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment Mrs Uzamat Akinbile-Yusuff said this during a mentorship programme for the youth to embrace skills acquisition.

    She said: “Lagos State is solving a critical problem, which is unemployment. This problem is created by the belief that every young graduate must seek employment, forgetting that we can only get employed if we create employment.

    ”The question everybody is asking, is ”how do we create employment?’ We’ve got an answer to that question which is learn a skill and earn a living.”

    According to Akinbile-Yusuff, there is huge rate of unemployment in the country because many young university graduates lack the practical skills to make them self-employed.

    She urged the participants to take advantage of financial services provided by the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) to grow their businesses.

    The Acting Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr Sam Ajibade urged the participants to make good use of the knowledge acquired and become entrepreneurs.

     

  • Skills acquisition seminar on modelling holds

    A seminar on entrepreneurial skills for Nigerian models is to hold between May 21 to 25 at the Ember Creek, Lagos.

    According to the organizer and facilitator, Mrs Joan Okorodudu, the Managing Director of Isis Models, it is to teach aspiring models and practising ones the basics about the industry.

    She said, “We want to change the mindset of people who are either running the modelling industry or young models who are upcoming or those there already. We want to teach models about contract, certain entrepreneurial skills which will come in handy by the time they retire.”

    Some of these skills she said include styling, make up, designing, hair styling, photography, acting among others.

     

  • IG’s wife Ndayako lifts POWA with skills acquisition

    IG’s wife Ndayako lifts POWA with skills acquisition

    Wife of the Inspector General of Police (IG) Princess Asmau Ndayako Idris has organised a free skill acquisition training for members of the Police Officers’ Wives Association ( POWA ) in Akure, the Ondo State capital; Alagbaka and Ilorin, Kwara State.

    The training was done in partnership with Helping Hands International (H2i).

    More than 200 serving policemen and POWA members were taken through the rudiments of make-up artistry, paint and Izal productions, bread baking, ankara dyeing/shoe/bag making, oil extraction, barbecue-making, among others. The paint produced was used to paint part of Police headquarters at Ilorin.

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    The occasion pulled personalities from various police formations, including wife of the Ondo State Commissioner of Police, Evangelist Christiana Adeyanju.

    The Kwara State Assistant Commissioner of Police, Ronald Okon, who represented his boss Onuoha Chika; Police Area Commander, Okey and Managing Director of Helping Hands International (H2i) Emmanuel Obitex, were also in attendance.

    H2i Concepts is an international Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) which has been helping the Federal Government to empower the police force and youths by offering them opportunity to acquire additional skills.

  • Ikpeazu empowers graduates of skills acquisition

    The wife of the Governor of Abia State, Mrs. Nkechi Ikpeazu, has charged 44 graduates of skills acquisition to utilize the equipment given to them to improve their livelihood.

    Mrs. Ikpeazu gave the charge at Ummunneochi LGA were the training, sponsored by Abia State Government, took place.

    Speaking earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Women Affairs, Dr. Nnenna Chikezie, said the programme was put together to put smiles on the faces of the downtrodden.

    In their speeches, the chairman of the occasion, Dr. Johnson Uzoatuegwu and the Chairman of Ummunneochi Local Government Council, Mr. Okey Igwe, expressed thanks.

    Responding on behalf of the beneficiaries, Mrs. Ozioma Okorie, expressed gratitude to the state government for empowering them to be self-reliant and pledged to use the equipment and skill to improve themselves.

    The items used for the empowerment include 12 laptops, 10 sewing machines, 12 hairdressing equipment, and tools used for bean cake baking.

    The ceremony featured the foundation laying ceremony of a borehole at the council headquarters by the wife of the governor.

    In a related development, the government of Abia State has provided five refuse disposal trucks for the Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA).

    This is coming at the time refuse heaps could be seen in almost all parts of the state, especially in Aba and the capital city, Umuahia.

    Speaking while handing over the disposal trucks, the State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, said his administration is determined to ensure that the state is kept clean at all times.