From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
No fewer than 144 trainees of Ogun State Entrepreneurship Skills Acquisition Programme have graduated from the programme designed to enhance technological skills of young university and polytechnic graduates.
The one year training and technological empowerment programme was organised by the state government, in partnership with Foreign Trade and Investment Services Africa (FTAISA).
Addressing the graduate trainees at the graduation ceremony held at the Technology Incubation Centre, Onijanganjangan, Abeokuta, Saturday, the Coordinator of the scheme, Cliff Ogbede, urged the beneficiaries to join government in reducing unemployment by making judicious use of the vocational training received to create more jobs for teeming Nigerians.
He congratulated the graduate trainees for their resilience and successful completion of the training, saying they had been adequately trained and tutored on how to confront challenges and be a robust entrepreneurs solving problems of unemployment all around them and adding great value to the society. He disclosed that some of them would be sent on internship both locally and internationally for further training.
Ogbede urged them to be good ambassadors of Ogun State and the skills acquisition programme wherever they find themselves, adding that the certificates issued at the end of the programme was well recognised all over the world, as the training was done in partnership with over 200 years old Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine.
He, therefore, commended Governor Ibikunle Amosun for approving the training programme for manpower development, job creation and economic growth, urging him not to relent in embarking any programme that could take people away from poverty.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Youths and Sports, Mr. Isqeel Aboaba, represented by a Director in the Ministry, Mr. Sola Oduntan, congratulated the graduands and the team of dedicated trainers. He disclosed that the state government would soon launch a website that would not only serve as data base for the unemployed but where the employers can also visit for recruitment. He urged them to use the knowledge gained from the programme in further wealth creation.