FREEPRESS – Determined to address problem of youths’ unemployment in the country, the Federal Government has trained and empowered no fewer than 41,161 graduates under the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) bankrolled by the Federal Ministry of Finance.
The Project Director Mr. Dennis Chukwu who made this known while addressing 50 beneficiaries from Akwa Ibom State yesterday in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital said so far “the scheme has demonstrated high prospect for job creation and social projection of youths.
“The career development and entrepreneurship skills training have been designed to help you answer the question of ‘what next. It is expected that from this training, those of you who are yet to begin plans for your future will do so without further delay.
According to Chukwu, who was represented by Dr. Essien Akparawa, the graduates are imbued with skills in various trades including Information and Communication Technology (ICT), community health, agriculture, construction, education, as well as financial empowerment to start businesses after one year internship.
“The intervention became necessary to re-orientate and redirect the minds of the youths towards independent ventures that would make them employers of labour, instead of job seekers”, he said.
Also, Mr. Dauda Madaki, who stood in for the project consultant, enjoined participants to take more than a passing interest in the scheme to fully develop their potentials. “If effectively maximized the programme has the tendency of molding youths to become functional entrepreneurs that will help to grow the economy and create jobs for others”, he stressed.
It could be recalled that out of all the SURE-P programmes initiated by the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, the GIS remains the only scheme retained by the current administration as a stop gap programme to curtail youths’ unemployment in Nigeria
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