ONE year after the stoppage, the Lagos State government on Thursday brought back the Ready Set Work (RSW) programme, starting with sensitisation tour of the participating tertiary institutions beginning with the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo.
But unlike the previous editions with eight schools benefited, only four schools will benefit from this year’s edition.
RSW is an initiative of the Lagos State government, which commenced under the last administration, designed to sharpen entrepreneurial knowledge and skills of final year students and their immediate juniors in both the public and private tertiary schools in the state, ahead of their graduation.
And the philosophy behind that, according to the then governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, was that irrespective of ownership of tertiary institutions in Lagos State, the government should be able to add its own value to graduate students and make them really employable and ready for the world of work either as employees or employers.
And in three years, participants of the programme have grown steadily peaking at 37,500 cumulatively, comprising 7,500 in final year and 30,000 in their penultimate year.
But the programme has been put on hold since October 2018 when the last set graduated and the subsequent intending participants have been waiting for registration.
Speaking at the sensitisation programme at LASU on Thursday, the Special Adviser to the State Governor on Education, Mr Tokunbo Wahab, said the government brought back the programme because of the testimonies recorded in the previous editions which he said are in tandem with the vision of the current administration.
“But we will make some changes here and there to make the programme more impactful and beneficial to participants and the state at large,” he added.
He noted that this year’s edition which is fourth in the series, would accommodate only 5.000 graduating students across disciplines, and from only four schools namely LASU, Caleb University, Imota, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu and the Lagos State College of Nursing, Igando.
“We want to test run with those four schools first because we are at the moment confronted with time and space constraints. We will run the physical class for six weeks and e-class for another six weeks making 12 weeks all together unlike the previous editions that took 13 weeks.
“And after this year, we will begin to accommodate more schools until we are able to accommodate all tertiary institutions in the state including University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka and Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech) and Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED) and so forth.
“It is not that we are discriminating against any school by this arrangement. We have all tertiary schools in our plans but we are to give priority first to our own schools, especially LASU and then extend to other schools in subsequent editions.”
Wahab, who announced that the registration for participation would be done solely online and for only one week while class to start on November 25, however, urged the intending participants to give the programme a deserved attention.
In his remarks at the event, the vice-chancellor of LASU, Prof Olanrewaju Fagbohun, confirmed that RSW is really an eye-opener for students concerning the world of work after graduation and life generally.
He noted that LASU would continue to give its full support towards the success of the programme.