The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has said it recruited 1,000 graduates of different tertiary institutions to participate in its Graduate Attachment Programme (GAP) as part of its effort to engage Nigeria’s teeming unemployed youths.
NDE also stated that a total of 1,110 unemployed Nigerians have been engaged in job creation training under the Directorate’s Environmental Beautification Training Scheme (EBTS).
The EBTS programme, according to NDE, is a scheme under its Special Works employment creation, and it is designed to provide professional skills for unskilled and unemployed persons in environmental sanitation, beautification and management.
NDE also hinted that the scheme is being implemented in the 36 states of the federation as well as the Federal Capital Tertiary (FCT).
In a statement, the NDE said, “Within the 2021 financial year, the NDE provided transient job opportunities through the GAP for about 5,000 graduates across the country. Under the current initiative, however, 18 states, namely; Taraba, Gombe, Borno, Plateau, Kogi and Kwara States are benefiting.
Others are, Imo, Abia, Ebonyi, Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Rivers, Delta and Edo States. Similarly, another 50 participants will be benefiting from the scheme under the national grid.
“For a period of three months, participants will be attached to organisations in the public and private sectors where they will be engaged in duties in tandem with their areas of study/qualification. During the period of attachment, they gain work experience, network and contribute to the organisations they are attached to. Employers may find them good enough to be retained in permanent positions or they may return to the NDE for some other available self-employment opportunities through various skills acquisition training. While on attachment, the participants will enjoy a stipend of N20,000 per month for the three month period that the exercise will last.”
On the EBTS programme, the statement said, “The scheme, which is designed to provide professional skills for unskilled and unemployed persons in environmental sanitation, beautification and management, is being implemented in the 36 states of the federation as well as the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Thirty persons from each state of the Federation and FCT are currently undergoing the three-month training structured to provide skills in soft and hard landscaping and Plaster of Paris (POP) and other relevant related skills to hitherto unskilled and unemployed persons on demand driven basis across the federation.
“At the end of the three month training period, the trainees are expected to be able to establish a means of livelihood leading to self-reliance following empowerment/support in the form of working tools and cash by the NDE. Apart from the job creation potentials of the scheme, it is equally expected to improve the general environmental aesthetics of the country.
“The NDE is collaborating with several master trainers in the delivery of the critical skills needed to actualise the EBT throughout the country. Over time, graduates of the scheme are expected to become trainers thereby deepening the acquisition of skills in that field and the general practice. The NDE will pay each trainee the sum of N5,000.00 as stipend per month while the training lasts.”
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