One year after, Lagos brings back Ready Set Work programme

After one year of waiting by prospective beneficiaries, the Lagos State government has brought back the Ready Set Work (RSW) programme.

It brought back the programme on Thursday last week with sensitisation tour of four participating schools instead of eight of the previous editions.

RSW is an initiative of the Lagos State government which commenced under the last administration. It was designed to sharpen entrepreneurial knowledge and skills of final year students and their immediate juniors in both public and private tertiary schools in the state, ahead of their graduation.

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 graduating students and make them really employable and ready for the world of work either as employees or employers.

In three years, participants in the programme grew steadily peaking at 37,500 cumulatively, comprising 7,500 in final year and 30,000 in their penultimate year.

But the programme had been put on hold since October 2018 when the last set graduated and the subsequent intending participants had been waiting for registration.

Speaking at the sensitisation programme at LASU and the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, which would serve as training centres for participants, the Special Adviser to the 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.

Confusion as Senator Abdullahi’s Hate Speech Bill resurfaces at Senate

He noted that this year’s edition, which is the fourth in the series, would accommodate only 5,000 graduating students across disciplines from four schools, namely LASU; Caleb University, Imota; LASPOTECH and the Lagos State College of Nursing, Igando.

He explained: “We want to test-run with those four schools first, more so that 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 altogether, 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; Yaba College of Technology and Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education.

“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 announced that the registration for participation would be done solely online and for only one week while class would start on November 25. He, however, urged the intending participants to give the programne a deserved attention.

In their separate remarks at the event, the vice chancellor of LASU, Professor Olanrewaju Fagbohun, and rector of LASPOTECH, Mr Samuel Sogunro, who was represented by his deputy in charge of academics, Mr Olumide Metiletu, confirmed that the RSW is really an eye opener for students concerning the world of work after graduation and life generally.

Nigerian Tribune