NDE unfolds employment scheme

In line with its statutory mandate for mass employment creation through skills acquisition, the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has concluded arrangements for the take off of several new employment creation schemes, the acting Director General Kunle Obayan has said. 
 Obayan said the new employment scheme tagged School-To-Work  Scheme would be pilot tested in one state from each of the six geo-political zones of the country namely: Anambra, Ondo, Kogi, Cross River, Katsina  and Bauchi.
He said the new scheme is targeted at secondary school students in JSS 3 and SS2 in the first instance. He said the training would be carried out during the forthcoming long vacation period.
Obayan  said the objective of  the School-To-Work initiative is aimed at meaningfully engaging the students while on long vacation with a view to ensuring that they stayed away from anti-social conducts due to idleness.
He said the scheme is envisaged to establish the culture of skills acquisition among the young in Nigeria under the regular school system and environment thereby incorporating skills acquisition into the national educational system.
Obayan said a  total of 150 students would be trained per state making a total of 900 students nationwide drawn from the six states under the pilot phase of the scheme. He said the students would be motivated through the payment of stipends throughout the two months duration of the training.
 “The under listed skills shall be provided and the students will be required to choose from the list depending on the suitability of the skill to the given environment: beads stringing, GSM repairs, GSM applications installations, confectioneries soap/pomade making, barbing/hair dressing, head gear-tying and facial beauty care, manicure and pedicure, satellite dish installation/maintenance, interior decoration, photography and video camera operations, catering, hat making, agric market gardening, poultry keeping, POP,  and interlocking,” he said.
He disclosed that the NDE also has finalized arrangements for the commencement of other new employment creation initiatives under the Rural Employment Promotion Programme (REP).
On the NDE Agricultural Park, Obayan said it is an all-inclusive agribusiness cluster that is a hub of commercial activities with high employment generation potentials.
“The park provides a favourable environment for entrepreneurship offering capacity building (training, incubation, mentorship, technical and business support) pre-developed business plans, start-up capital and access to market. The competitive small enterprises have close buying/selling relationships and utilization of common technologies and facilities for production and value addition,” he said.
He said that two parks have been established in Sabuwa LGA of Katsina State and Akunnu in Akoko North LGA of Ondo State.