FG trains 50 Bauchi unemployed graduates in skills acquisition

NO fewer than 50 unemployed graduates from Bauchi State have been trained in various skills under the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) of the Federal Ministry of Finance to  provide short term employment.

The Project Director Graduate Internship Scheme, Mr Denise Chukwu, who stated this at the opening ceremony of the 3-day training held at Larema International Hotel and Suite Bauchi, said the training was aimed at tackling unemployment in the country.

According to him, the graduates are trained on entrepreneurial skills, business management and finance control, among others.

The Project Director, who was represented by senior official of Federal Ministry of Finance,   Mrs Chinwe Neftetee, said GIS was responsible for the training of the unemployed graduates after which they were posted to different organisations to enable them acquire marketable and employable skills.

“The aim of the training is to impact employability skills into unemployed graduates to help them secure jobs and develop their business plans”, he said

Denise explained that many had secured jobs or owned their own businesses through the programme, adding that GIS was achieving the purpose for which it was set up.

The project coordinator commended the government and the nongovernmental organisation for contributing towards reducing unemployment and imparting skills into teeming unemployed youth in the country.

Also speaking, officials of the PIU, Mr Felix Aderemu Olotu, said the participants had been receiving a monthly stipend of N30,000 each by the ministry in the course of their one year internship attachment with different organisations.

He said the programme was initiated to cater for the staggering number of unemployed youth in the country.

Felix said Federal Government frowned at unemployment rate and acknowledged the fact that it could not solve the problem of unemployment itself and alone, so, it saw the need  to train graduates for employability skills.

Responding on behalf of the trainees Adamu Saleh from Jama’re,   promised that the participants would use the skills, experiences and stipends they received during the training judiciously.

He urged the Federal Government to continue with the scheme as many graduate were coming out of universities every day.