In a bid to equip the youths the School of Politics, Policy and Governance has embarked on a skill development training tagged the Project Youth Spark for selected youths in Osun State.
The programme, which is set to last for three weeks, had its opening ceremony on Friday in Osogbo, Osun State where different dignitaries spoke to the participants and urged them to fully engage in the training and absorb as much knowledge as possible from the program.
In his speech, Governor Ademola Adeleke revealed the steps his administration has taken to curb employment and several measures that are currently been implemented.
The Governor who was represented by the Commissioner for Empowerment, Bayo Ogungbangbe also revealed the future plans for the young people..
He said, “Our administration has taken several strategic steps to address youth unemployment and we are not resting on our laurels. Our future plans include, Investment Promotion, Public-Private Partnerships amongst others”
Speaking with the newsmen at the event, member of Osun house of Assembly, Hon Adewumi Adeyemi, emphasized on the need to build capacity among the youths to make them more employable, while calling on the Federal Government to review the current school curriculum.
He said “ So this is why we need to applaud this kind of a program because it seeks to build capacity in the participants, also build to them, the capacity needed, to be employed.
“As a member of parliament I would advise the federal government to look into our curriculum because this curriculum needs to be rejected.”
The team lead of the project Olufunmi Olaosun stated that the project was designed to equip and empower young people in the state.
Olufunmi said “ When we came up with the idea, we thought that we looked at the employment statistics, unemployment statistics in Nigeria, and we realized it was very high so we thought to bring this project to Osun State and the goal is that at the end of the training, they would have gotten skills to equip them in their workplaces, to get jobs, and also to start businesses.
Dr Goodluck Mfonnom, one of the team members stated that the project will be held in three states to curb unemployment and empower the youths with the skills they need.
Over 200 young people from across the State participated in the Youth Employability and Enterprise Skills Development Training Program.
