In a concerted move to rid Ekiti State of unemployment and endemic poverty, the senate leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, has trained 1,900 youths and women in vocational and entrepreneurial training to uplift their economic potential.
The Senator representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District said the endemic joblessness and the attendant poverty in the country can only be tackled headlong with individuals partnering the government to expose the vast youth population to vocational training that can make them self-reliant.
The Senator said this in Ado Ekiti, on Wednesday, at the closing session of a three-day vocational and entrepreneurial programme, organised for the youth and women in Ekiti Central Senatorial District.
The federal lawmaker, represented by a Senior Legislative Assistant, Bunmi Oguntuase, said the area of focus in the trainings are: Make Up and Barbing, Leather Works, Fashion Designing, Confectionary, , Hairdressing, Soap Making and Agriculture.
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Senator Bamidele assured that the participants will not only be exposed to relevant training to acquire skills to thrive in their areas of interests but would get the requisite inputs to kickstart their businesses.
He saluted the drafters of the country’s education curricular, who are fasting adjusting to the current reality, with the introduction of vocational and entrepreneurial courses in the tertiary institutions to make the graduates well equipped to operate under a sophisticated 21st century economy.
According to him, ” We are doing this to help our youths and women who are the most hit by the scourges of unemployment and poverty. The few white collar jobs we have can’t serve all the youths, they need to be given the right exposure, skills and other support to operate and contribute to the economic development.
“This might not be enough to go around, but gradually we are providing the platform to lend the required help that can help the system. Unemployment is directly connected with the upsurge in crimes in our society, and for us to overcome this, we must do what we ought to do as leaders to make our youth productive.
“We have various sections or interests, they shall be trained based on whichever they picked. And at the end of it all, we will encourage the beneficiaries so that they can start off their own businesses.”
Speaking at the event, one of the trainers and consultants with Akgen Solutions Limited, Akanni Sanni, said the programme is expected to have a positive multiplier effect on the economy of the state within the next 12 months.
Akanni added that Senator Bamidele conceptualised the training in view of the spiralling unemployment rate and how best to salvage the youth and women population from the throes of poverty.
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