The Acting Director-General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Mr. Abubakar Fikpo, says the directorate will continue to assist youths in skill acquisitions.
Fikpo gave this assurance in Enugu on Wednesday during a one-day orientation and flag off Programme for Basic and Advanced Trainees of National Open Apprenticeship Schemes (B/A-NOAS).
The NDE Director General represented by an Assistant Director of Vocational Skills Development, Mr. Obinna Ofia, said that the training was to empower unemployed youths to acquire skills that would help them in life.
He listed the skills to include catering, aluminum fabrication, fashion designing, hair dressing and barbing.
Ofia said that 340 participants were trained for Basic – NOAS while 34 others were for Advanced -NOAS.
According to him, the A-NOAS participants had undergone training in B-NOAS and now need to achieve proficiency in their chosen trade.
The DG noted that having relevant skills would not only help them to contribute significantly to Nigerian economy but also make them financial independent, which was among the cardinal objectives of the agency.
He added that the directorate would try to provide financial start-up packs to the beneficiaries to help them set up their own, even when financial packs were not part of the agency’s mandate.
In her remarks, the Enugu State Coordinator of the NDE, Mrs Chika Onah, reminded the beneficiaries that they were into the business of acquiring either basic or advanced skills.
Onah regretted that many people did not take the NDE training seriously because it was free, a development that had contributed in making some trainees not to learn their chosen skills.
The coordinator however, urged them to see the skill acquisition as an addition to the certificate they might have acquired in academic institutions, noting that the skill would provide an additional source of income to them.
She appealed to the beneficiaries to take the three months training serious and also learn all they needed to learn from the workshop and where they would be posted.
In a contribution, the Enugu State Coordinator of National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB), Mrs Chigozie Metu, advised the trainees to be diligent and humble in order to learn their chosen skills.
Metu reminded them that thea of white collar job was over as labour market was saturated with job-seekers noting that they were on the path of creating jobs for others.
Speaking on behalf of other trainees, Miss Nneka Jideofor applauded the NDE for the opportunity granted to them to learn the skill, and promised that they would utilise the gains.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the training would last for three months for both the basic and the advanced trainings. (NAN)
