Nike Popoola
The Lagos State Government has reiterated its commitment to increasing the employability skills of graduates by creating opportunities for them to become empowered and employed.
The Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Mr. Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti, said this during an induction programme for the graduates of the internship scheme on Thursday.
He said, “About 250 beneficiaries have been taken up for internship by our up-takers, who are our partners, out of the 2,000 we have in the first set.
“We introduced this scheme because we need something to stimulate them to redesign that ecosystem, and that is why we decided as a government to invest in a transparent and inclusive process, and also let them know that this is very competitive.”
During the programme, three interns, who emerged as the best performing participants, were given special preference in job placement and N100,000 each.
The commissioner observed that many organisations were sceptical about the low employability skills of graduates generally.
Durosinmi-Etti said that this was the reason why the state government decided to give the youth opportunities to apply for the internship programme and invest in them through a very competitive and transparent process, adding that it would be a continuous programme.
According to him, the partners working with the ministry are from different sectors and are accommodating the beneficiaries in order to give them the opportunities to be trained and benefit the organisations.
He noted that this would open opportunities for the interns to either work in those organisations when they complete the three-month internship programme or, acquire skills that could make them entrepreneurs.
The commissioner said that to qualify, the beneficiaries must have a first degree or a Higher National Diploma, and must have completed their youth corps service.
“We are confident that these youths are resilient and they are good. In about three months’ time, we intend to bring them back here to get feedbacks from them and also create another forum to mentor those who are going to be good in entrepreneurial skills.”
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