Skills acquisition: 50 Afijio youths set to turn Oyo economy around against unemployment

By Adeola Badru

AS a way of tackling the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria, a total of fifty youths in Afijio Local Government Area of Oyo State have set out machinery to turn the fortunes of the local government and the state around for better through their various entrepreneurial skills.

The youths, comprised of secondary school leavers, undergraduates and graduates of some tertiary institutions, who were fresh graduates of Afijio Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) Academy in partnership with Edutech, vowed to make the best use of the skills learnt during their one-month entrepreneurial classes, organised by a lawmaker in the state’s House of Assembly, Barr. Seyi Adisa.

They were trained in various entrepreneurial skills which ranged from supply chain management, care and facility management and hair production and beauty management.

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In an interview with one of the principal instructors of Edutech, Mr Amuchi Daniel, he observed that the one-month skill acquisition programme was meant to create some sorts of self employability and not just a case of relying on white-collar jobs.

He noted that the youths needed to be empowered to be able to use what they have learnt to sell it outside.

His words: “Basically, all we have been trying to do is getting students acquainted on what they are doing, on what they need to do and how best they can do it. It’s a form of alleviation and not necessarily school things.”

“We need to understand what they know, how best they know it and them in line with what they could do best.”

“We realised in Afijio Local Government, there are lots of products that being produced and empowering people to understand how to use the supply chain itself is what really matters because there is a very large market in Afijio.”

“We need to empower students to be able to use what they have learnt within here to sell it outside,” he added.

In his remark, the lawmaker representing Afijio constituency in the state’s House of Assembly, Barr. Seyi Adisa highlighted youths unemployment as one of the major problems confronting the country.

According to him, the high rate of unemployment has become a source of worry to concerned people across the nation.

He spoke further: “There is a general problem and it is the challenge of youth unemployment. And it is something that has bothered a lot of people across the nation.”

“And when I started my process of campaigning, it became evident that that was going to be the number one challenge we had to face. From the fathers to the mothers, even to the youths, the same problem came resonating, which is there is just not enough opportunities.”

“Every day, every year we bring out graduates, we bring out people that have gone to school, that have invested in their lives, but they’re not just opportunities. And so it became something for me, to become part of the solutions, to try and bring change. And I have the platform by becoming a member of the House of Assembly.”

“But when you are talking about solving unemployment, it’s a weak end problem, so you don’t use one approach. You bring different approaches to the table. So while we are talking about of passing laws, we have passed several motions; there is a part of trying to bring things up in your own constituency and that’s what led into this technical and vocation education training (tvet), which we started a month ago.”

“Over the years, we have fifty young Afijio graduates that have been through supply chain management and other vocational training. These are all skills we believe they can get engaged immediately. These are not skills that we just do it because we want to give them certificates.”

“These are skills that tomorrow they can start to get jobs. We are not just going to leave them; we have been writing letters to companies to let them know that they are fresh graduates from this programme that are trained and they can take on. We have written to over a hundred companies in Oyo state and that is our approach to solve youths unemployment in Afijio Local Government,” he stated.

Vanguard News Nigeria

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