IN furtherance of its mandate to build an entrepreneurially literate society and contribute to strengthening the industrial base of Nigeria, the First Technical University, Ibadan, Oyo State, has completed a two-week Youth Empowerment and Contract Recruitment Programme for 100 beneficiaries drawn from the Ona Ara Local Government of Oyo State.
The programme, the first in a series of such programmes to be organised by the university, was sponsored by the Commissioner for Finance and Budget in Oyo State, Abimbola Adekanmbi.
At the certificate presentation ceremony held on Monday, the vice chancellor, Professor Ayobami Salami, in his opening remarks said the programme was designed to develop the capacity of participants in industry-relevant technical, vocational and entrepreneurial skills necessary to start and effectively manage need-based micro and small size enterprises.
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“This is with the view to reducing the scourge of youth unemployment in the state and its associated socio-economic consequences.
“For us at Tech-U, this ceremony demonstrates our commitment to providing sustainable alternatives to the crisis of unemployment in our country,” he said.
According to him, the programme featured intensive hands-on training in system security, On Board Diagnosing (OBD2), Global Positioning System (GPS), Close Circuit Television (CCTV) Installation, Private Branch Exchange, cosmetology, film production and photography, fashion designing, agro-allied and paint making.
Indeed, presentations were made by the different groups to demonstrate their proficiency. A short film produced by the film and photography group entitled Agoni of the Blind (a Tosin Ogunsola Production) was presented by Olayiwola Sheriff to resounding applause.
The film highlights the various vulnerabilities of the visually impaired in the society.
Other groups included Paints Production (presented by Adebayo Sherifdeen); Fashion Designing (presented by Abdulraheem Yakubu Kolawole.
Dresses donned by members of this group were said to have been produced by the group. In fact, the moment the commissioner arrived the venue of the event, his measurements were taken, and the dress was completed and presented to him at the end of the event.
The presentation on Systems Security, including CCTV installation, Intercom, vehicle diagnostic device, car tracker and so on was made by Ajetunmobi Tobi; while presentations on agro-allied products and Make-up were made by Oluwatobi Adisa and Oyedapo Oyinladun respectively.
The commissioner, in a post-event interview, said he was encouraged to partner Tech-U on the project having seen the quality of ‘futuristic’ courses on offer.
Adekanmi at the event announced a donation of N500, 000 towards assisting certain groups of the beneficiaries to set up their businesses.
He also promised on behalf of government to somehow factor in the programme into the procurement process, such that beneficiaries of this and subsequent trainings could provide goods and services to government based on their skills.
“While I wanted to partner with the university, I found out from the university what arrangement they had and they assured me that they had arrangement with off-takers; people whom they would send some of these beneficiaries to with the assurance that they have been trained by the university so they could offer them employment; they would get partners to send more beneficiaries to train here and to empower them on completion of training.
“And of course, government as well will try and embed into government procurement such that these beneficiaries would provide goods and services based on the skills they’ve been empowered with,” the commissioner said.
Certificates of proficiency were later presented to the different groups of beneficiaries.
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