From: Petrus Obi, Enugu
The National Industrial Skills Development has successfully concluded a three-month training for over 500 youths selected from each of the three senatorial zones of Enugu State.
The 500 youths were trained in such skills like carpentry, wood work, domestic electrical wiring, tailoring and weaving, welding and fabrication, cosmetology, among others.
Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund, Dickson Onuoha, who was represented by Sir Joseph N. Ari, at the closing ceremony of the National Industrial Skills Programmes, said the policy was aimed at ensuring that Nigeria youths are equipped with skills for employability and entrepreneurship.
He disclosed that the programme was one of the key initiatives by the ITF to key into the present administration policy of job creation and wealth generation.
Onuoha also affirmed that the commitment of the federal and the ITF to skills acquisition was informed through dark and bleak future that lies in wait if urgent and proactive measures are not taken particularly in area of empowerment.
“By year 2050, according to a projection, Nigeria population will be 500 million. Of this number majority will be youths, and as much as the youth bulge is an advantage, it becomes a huge disadvantage especially when they are not meaningfully engaged.
“The ITF is working assiduously to ensure that indigenes of this country fill in vacancies meant for them that are currently being filled by expatriates who have exceeded their one percent quota especially in the construction, oil and gas sector.
“With the array of skills and interventionist programmes lined up, it is pertinent to note that the ITF cannot execute all of these without cooperation of stakeholders”.
Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, who was represented by the commissioner for industry, Hon. Sam Ogbu Nwobodo, however, expressed delight with the students who embarked in the programme.
Ugwuanyi, in his reaction, urged the grandaunts to be upright and to count themselves as fortunate for benefiting from such a scheme.
He advised them against using the funds made for a particular business for anther project assuring that the state would continue to support them, believing that they would contribute to the economic growth of the state and the country at large.
Area manager of the industrial training fund, Enugu area office, Mrs. Nonyelum Nneka in a remark said Enugu state was one of the privileged states that have benefited from the Batch B fifth phase of the laudable skills programme across the country.