Abuja – The National Centre for Women Development (NCWS) said on Thursday it would train youths on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as well as other vocational courses.
Its Director-General, Ms Onyeka Onwenu disclosed this at the graduation ceremony for 330 students of vocational studies in Abuja.
She said that information on the training of young people in ICT would be publicised and that the trainees would be given grants at the end of the training to enable them to embark on a vocation independently.
“Instead of just giving a young person money and say go take care of yourself, pay for training for them.
“When you give them this training you are teaching them how to fish and not just giving them fish for one day.
“So this is vital not just for government but for our partners – the UN agencies, private organisations, NGOs – to bring together people for training here.
“We are organising a training that is coming up here very soon, indeed and we are going to open it up on our website for people to be involved, training them in ICT.
“For those ones at the end of the day there will be a provision no matter how small.“
Onwenu said that determination was required for an individual to develop acquire a skill adding that expecting too much capital to start a vocation at the end of the training would diminish the interest of the trainee.
“The thing is that you can start where you are; you don’t need to wait until you have millions of naira; even if you have N5, 000, you can start frying kpof kpof at the corner of the street.
“The big businesses we see today all started small and this is what we are trying to do today,“ she said.
According to her, the Centre is compiling data on women who received training at the Centre to provide them with loans to further develop their skills.
“We are going to be compiling information made available through phone applications, through publications, for young people, the women to know this is how I can access the loans that have been made available not just by government, by international agencies, the help and other areas of training that are available.
“We are putting all these together, and we have data bank of the people who we have trained, people that we have contact with, we work with, so that all these will be made available to them.
“There are so many things that are available but people don’t know about it.“
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that skills and courses being offered by the Centre includes tourism and hospitality, interior/outdoor decoration, cosmetology, catering, and bead making. (NAN)
