Akure – The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has trained no fewer than 535 people on various trades in Ondo State in the last one week.
The State Coordinator of NDE, Mr Mayowa Aliu, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Akure on Sunday.
Aliu said that one of the training programmes was the School-to-Work-Quick-Win which targeted students in JSS3, SS1 and SS2.
He said that under this scheme, students were trained in confectionary, pillar designing, Ankara accessories, bridal works, painting, bead stringing and hat making.
“The School-to-Work Quick-Win Skills training scheme is aimed at tackling unemployment at the grassroots because joblessness begins at the secondary school level.
“The scheme is borne out of the need to shield these categories of students from social vices prevalent during the long vacation.
“The overall objective of the scheme was to catch the children young and prepare them ahead of time,” he said.
Aliu further said that the directorate trained 25 unemployed graduates on environmental beautification.
He said that under the scheme, the youths were trained on soft landscaping and hard landscaping which were designed to align them with the current demand in environmental beautification.
He explained that the scheme was meant to impact specialised skills on the unemployed youths, equipping them better and enhancing their chances of being employed or becoming entrepreneurs.
Aliu also noted that the directorate had earlier trained 360 people under the Basic National Open Apprenticeship Scheme (BNOAS).
He assured that NDE would continue evolving new schemes to tackle unemployment in the country.
He called on the unemployed in the society and those about to retire from service to embrace the directorate’s programmes to become self reliant. (NAN)
