ABOUT 450 unemployed youths in Cross River State have commenced vocational skills acquisition on both technical and domestic skills in the state organised by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).
Beneficiaries are both males and females, while skills acquired include fashion designing, hair dressing, plumbing, television and radio repairs, GSM and electrical installation.
Speaking during the flag off of the training exercise in Calabar, the Director-General of NDE, Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, who was represented by the state Coordinator, Udam Gabriel Ugbashi, enjoined the selected youths to see themselves as privileged, having been chosen from the vast number of unemployed youths in the state.
“The exercise will be for three months. It is meant for 360 unemployed youths who will participate in basic vocational skills training and 180 participants on advanced vocational skills training across the 18 local government areas of the state,” Ugbashi said.
On his part, the Director of Vocational Skills Department, NDE headquarters who was represented on the occasion by Haroon Eze, admonished the trainees to take the training serious in order to justify the huge investment of the Federal Government in the training.
The exercise took place at the Federal Secretariat complex in Calabar.