Obinna Odogwu, Abakaliki
At least 600 unemployed youths drawn from the 13 Local Government Areas of Ebonyi State would be trained on different skills by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in the state.
Already, the 600 trainees have received orientation on the Basic and Advanced National Open Apprenticeship Scheme (B-NOAS and A-NOAS) of the NDE in the state. The orientation course took place at the Unity Square, in Abakaliki, the state capital.
The vocational skills training areas, according to the Coordinator of NDE in the state, Mr Marcel Igboanude, were over 15 in number and they include: computer operation, GSM repairs, fashion design, hair dressing, barbing, generator maintenance, vulcanizing, computer repairs, and catering among others.
Igboanude said that the skills training programme was the innovative and dynamic strategies deployed by the NDE to address the challenges posed by mass unemployment in the country.
He lamented that unemployment remained one of the very serious social challenges militating against the nation’s march to full development, and noted that repercussions of mass unemployment if not properly addressed would adversely affect the overall development obligations of the nation.
The state Coordinator explained that 550 out of the 600 trainees would be engaged in B-NOAS while the remaining 50 trainees who have earlier graduated in the in the Basic Training would be engaged in the Advanced Training (A-NOAS).
He said that all the training schemes would last for the duration of three months during which the trainees were expected to master the skills reasonably.
He listed the areas where the skills training were to be “imparted to the unemployed youths” as “vocational skills acquisition, entrepreneurship skills, agricultural/rural employment skills, labour based works skills, and informal sector activities for women and vulnerable youths.”
Igboanude revealed that the NDE has since its coming to Ebonyi State in 1998, trained over 200,000 youths in various vocational and entrepreneurial skills.
He also revealed that about 5,000 youths have also been resettled by the directorate during the period to enable them set up their own businesses and become self-reliant.
Also, the Director-General of NDE, Dr Nasir Argungu who was represented by the Assistant Director, Vocational Skills Development (VSD) Department, NDE headquarters, Mr Obinna Offia, advised the beneficiaries to take the training seriously.
He urged them to count themselves lucky to be the selected beneficiaries from among the hundreds of thousands that applied; and as such should make the best of the opportunity.
One of the trainers, Chukwu Nkiruka, a beautician, sho said that there were lots of opportunities in her line of business told Daily Sun that she was assigned 10 trainees on beauty therapy.
Nkiruka said: “As a makeup artiste, whether male or female, you can work in different places. You can work in the movie industry, you can do a personal business, you can join a photography studio shoots, you can go for outside work and so on. It’s profiting too.
“I have 10 trainees and I made timetable for them because I have other trainees that paid for themselves. It is now like a personal class for them. So, I had to divide their class.
“For the NDE students, they will make it Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and because of their population, I had to divide the time. Some come in the morning, afternoon, and evening.
“And some of them complained that they come from far places and because of that, I made special arrangement for them because I want them to learn. We mostly use our Fridays for practical.”
Another trainer, Chikamma Ikechukwu, who runs JoyChika Eatables and Beauty Home, told us that she was assigned 16 trainees whom she would tutor on baking, decoration and event management.
Ikechukwu explained that the training slated to last for three months would cover baking, baking materials, pastries in general, festival cakes, and how to decorate and take care of event managements generally.
“We are still going to give them projects to work on and they are going to do it in my shop and then, present them to the NDE staff so as to confirm that they have actually gone through this training. That’s how I intend to train them.
“They come to my shop on Mondays by 10am. We will run through the course outline one by one. Also, on Wednesdays by 10am. Then, on Tuesdays and Thursdays are for their personal practical. I’ll watch them do what I have taught them.
“Then, on Friday they will have to submit whatever they have done by themselves; not the one I did, to the staff of NDE. If they do anything they take it to the staff of NDE on Fridays”, she added.