Atleast 8,000 undergraduate students drawn from tertiary institutions across Lagos State were presently undergoing entrepreneurship and employability skills under the State Government programme, Job Initiative Lagos (JIL) project, designed to address growing rate of unemployment among youths across Lagos.
Through the Job initiative, participants will be remodel to become employable and employers of labour on leaving school after been equipped with market-aligned knowledge, soft skills, business tools, and a mindset reorientation for their chosen careers in the technology-driven world of work.
Explaining idea behind the state government’s initiative, Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Tokunbo Wahab, said that the participants were currently been trained on how best they could run a new business with an in-depth knowledge of development strategies that would help them stabilise and become experts globally.
The training of the 8,000 further include Resume Writing, Work Etiquettes, Presentation and Pitching, Corporate E-Mail Drafting, Negotiations Skills, Interviewing Techniques, Microsoft Suites, Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook and Entrepreneurship Skills development.
Wahab, who was represented at the event by Senior Special Assistant on Tertiary Education, Youths and Students Relations, Omotayo Sanyaolu, stressed that the training has been designed to include solutions for 21st century unemployment challenges to give them and edge over the others.
His words: “Mr. Governor has designed this laudable Job Initiative Lagos (JIL) programme to upskill our youths and equip them with all necessary skills to make them employable and highly competitive in the global market. It will make their services remain relevant and essential for national economic growth in the 21st-century global digital economy.”
Urging participants to justify the government’s investment in the project through active participation, attentiveness and total cooperation with their facilitators, the Special Adviser advised the students to shun any distraction that could undermine their ability to excel after undergoing the training.
“I urge you to shun violence, cultism, kidnapping, banditry, smoking and other vices capable of undermining the government’s good intention of preparing you for future leadership challenges necessary for a more prosperous and economically viable new Nigeria of our collective dreams”, he said.
Earlier in her remarks, Assistant Project Coordinator, LoftInc Allied Partners Limited, the organisation collaborating with the State Government on the programme, Olatokunbo Aiyenimelo, disclosed that the partnership had earlier trained about 28,000 youths in the first phase of the scheme, adding that professionals and experts in different areas were on ground to take participants through various skills development programmes.
While commending Lagos State Government for the initiative, the Chairman, University of Lagos Students Union Council, Adesanya Olawale, who is also a beneficiary of the programme, said it would help develop their potentials while preparing them for the challenges required for good jobs and entrepreneurship.
In the same vein, former Lagos State Polytechnic Students’ Union President, Emmanuel Olamide, noted that the programme was an insight into the world of work, urging other State Governments to emulate Lagos State by initiating youth development programmes so as to reduce crimes to the barest minimum in the country.
