iCREATE, a skills development and youth empowerment organisation that is focused on promoting the importance of skills development and encouraging young people to take interest in trades in partnership with other key players in the construction industry are determined to tackle unemployment by giving artisans high quality technical and vocational training.
Speaking during a three-day Skills Festival last week in Abuja, the Chief Executive Officer of iCREATE, Bright Jaja, said the organisation, with the support of its partners, would rebrand artisans and promote a system of decent wages for them, especially in the construction industry.
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“We all know the situation of Nigeria where a lot of young people graduate from universities and they don’t get jobs. The problem is the fact that there are no jobs, there are jobs everywhere. We need people to fix our cars, make our clothes, fix our roads and build our houses. We need people to fix our chairs and to do our plumbing; but because of the stereotype, the young people decide to go for what is trending. And what is trending is mostly not available and that is where the problem is. So we want to highlight the importance of technical and vocational skills trade, highlight that young people can benefit from acquiring these skills and taking this career path. Also, change that negative perception about artisans,” he said.
Jaja further said iCREATE has already established a platform where skillers (artisans) from the age of 35 and below would get mentorship and would be connected with jobs globally.
One of the stakeholders, the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), noted that the skills sector holds the key to Nigeria’s unemployment challenge.
The Head of Project, GIZ, Tobias Wolfgarten, during a press briefing at the event, said there are a lot of unemployed youths in the country but there is equally huge potential to be harnessed in the skills sector needed in the labour market.
He said: “What we are doing is collaborating with the government and private sector to fill the skills gap. Youths can build decent careers and jobs by acquiring vocational skills. There is a need for precision and accuracy to compete globally. So, via this platform, youths can be trained to perfect their skills and take up career paths in any field they love.”
