Lagos to empower 1m students in digital skills

The Lagos State Government has kicked off its “Jobs Initiative Lagos” programme for youths in eight state-based tertiary institutions.

The initiative, according to a statement by the Special Adviser to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Education, Mr. Tokunbo Wahab, will run alongside a more robust digital skills campaign: “Digital Skills Initiative Lagos”, aimed at empowering over one million young people in the state by 2023 with digital skills, which will invariably position Lagos as the Tech Hub of Africa.

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According to him, Jobs Initiative Lagos, is designed as a complementary training for students in final and penultimate years in entrepreneurship, employability and basic digital skills required for the workplace.

The essence of the initiative programme, he said, was to fill the documented gaps in the current curriculum that were essential in the employment market and that it enhanced the employability of graduates in Nigeria’s Centre of Excellence, Lagos.

For the Digital Skills Initiative Lagos, he stated that students in secondary schools in the state would have access to well-trained instructors while those out of school would be able to access digital skills training and various internship opportunities as they completed the programmes.

“The projects are being coordinated by Lofty Inc Allied Partners Limited, an innovative development company that grows start-up teams, manages innovation programmes and facilitates impact projects in West Africa,” he noted.

While he explained that the first phase of Jobs Initiatives Lagos kicked off in June, 2020, and would continue over the next four months leveraging on the virtual learning platform, he made known that Digital Skills Initiative Lagos would commence virtually until the ease of the lockdown necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.