Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Director-General National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, has urged corps members to embrace skill acquisition instead of waiting endlessly for the unavailable white collar job.
He gave the advice during a meeting with the management of Hall 7 Project, a private estate developer company in his office in Abuja on Wednesday.
While lamenting the scarcity of white collar jobs in the country which made skill acquisition very compelling, the scheme’s DG maintained that the partnership has become very necessary.
Assuring that the Scheme would continue to strive towards empowering corps members for job creation, he said: “Jobs are not available like before and COVID-19 has also brought serious economic meltdown. We are ready for your collaboration that would bring tremendous benefit to our corps members and other youths in the country.”
General Ibrahim further stated that the expansion of the NYSC’s skills acquisition programme was one of the five policy thrusts of his administration which underscored the vigour with which he pursued it.
He therefore expressed happiness over the arrangement with Hall 7 to erect, furnish and donate an ultra-modern skills acquisition centre for the training of Corps Members and other youths.
Speaking earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of Hall 7 Project, Olayinka Braimoh revealed that his company and NYSC had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the issue at hand, stating that a curriculum for the various skill sets had already been developed, awaiting NYSC’s approval for work to commence; and expressed delight at the Director-General’s passion for the project to come to fruition.
Speaking further, he said that the inspiration behind the philanthropic gesture was his desire to give back to the society, for the benefit of mankind.
“I commend the NYSC for the unwavering commitment to youth empowerment over the years through skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development training for corps members. We will support the NYSC Skill Acquisition and ensure the sustainability of the project,” Braimoh noted.