As the nation awaits President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the Nigeria Peace Corps Establishment Bill, the Organisation on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with a United Kingdom-based ASQ Development and Training Company on the commencement of the training of its personnel.
Addressing newsmen on the development, the National Commandant of the Corps, Prof. Dickson Akoh stated that ICT instructors from the United Kingdom-based company would establish centres in the six geo-political zones of the country to enable the company undertake effective training of the personnel to be able to face the challenges ahead.
The first leg of the programme, which centred on digital literacy training, was kick-started after the endorsement of the MOU between the two organisations.
Prof Akor signed for his organisation while Mr Samson Adeosun endorsed the document on behalf of the UK-based company.
Akor explained that out of the membership strength of over 187,000 comprising regular members and volunteers, no fewer than 15,000 have already registered for the training.
He pointed out that although most of the personnel were university graduates of different disciplines, equipping them with digital literacy skills, would no doubt sufficiently prepare them to discharge their responsibilities in line with the core mandate of the organisation.
According to him, “It is important to note here that the world is going digital and the need to equip our members who are mostly youth with digital literacy skills cannot be overemphasised.
“However, on our part and as part of building the capacity of our members for robust, effective and efficient service delivery, we have taken some far-reaching steps to adequately prepare our officers and men for challenges in anticipation of the eventual assent by Mr President to the Bill for an Act to Establish the Nigerian Peace Corps, which shall give statutory backing to the organisation.
“The MoU signed with ASQ Development and Training Company will enable the ICT instructors from the company to establish centers in the six geo-political zones of the country for the purpose of training our members in their respective zones.
“As you may be aware, this organisation has a well-structured network of offices in all the states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory as well as offices in over 94% of the local government areas in the country with a membership strength of over 187,000, which comprises of regular members and volunteers.
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“Most of these are university graduates of different disciplines. Therefore, equipping them with digital literacy skills will in no doubt sufficiently prepare them to discharge their responsibilities as it relates to our core mandate.
‘However, the consultants from ASQ Development and Training Company, in executing the MoU, are to subject our members to a three-day in-house rigorous and intensive lecture programmes while the remaining part of the training will be conducted virtually.
“Thereafter, the company is expected to provide a web-based training platform for our officers and men to acquire essential basic information technology skills and certification to enhance human capital development across all professional sectors,” he stressed.
Akoh explained that the training would take off this weekend across the country and that the courses would include the introduction to computer information technology, introduction to working with computer and devices, introduction to working with software applications, introduction to the internet, networks and networking basics and introduction to cloud.
He added that the training will also involve introduction to computer programming basics, introduction to data-based basics, introduction to artificial intelligence basics and introduction to robotics.
The National Commandant commended the company for identifying with the value-driven initiatives of the Corps tailored towards socio-economic empowerment of the youth of the country.
In his brief remarks, the representative of the firm, Mr Adeosun assured that the Organization would not regret engaging its services as it would offer the personnel the best service as obtained globally.
