National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), in collaboration with Nigeria Youth Chamber of Commerce (NYCC), under its National Employability Skills Development and Internship Programme (NESDIP), said it has concluded arrangement for the training of Nigeria graduates in skill development. Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Abdalla Adumau and Chairman, Nigerian Youth Chamber of Commerce, Peter Ayim, who jointly briefed newsmen on the viability of the programme, said the scheme would further make graduates, not only employable, but self-employed.
Represented by Head, Human Resources of the university, Professor Grace Jokthan, he said unemployment rate in the country was appalling, hence the decision to collaborate with NYCC for the training programme. He disclosed that in the first instance, the training would be for three weeks for unemployed graduates at various study centres across the country, while another training, where certificates would be issued would be on three-month duration.
The certificate, according to him, would be called: “National Employability Certificate” and would co- signed by the university and the NYCC. “Many Nigerian graduates are qualify for employment, but the problem is that they need further training to guarantee them the job and employers of labour, in this digital age, are interested on graduates with skills”, he said. The vice-chancellor added that formal launching of the programme would be on May 9, while a career fair would be held May 10, stressing that the programme would “seal unemployment gap because many graduates were doing the job they are not qualify to do”.
“The 2018 Nigerian Bureau of Statistics report stated that about 17.5 Nigerian graduates are unemployed and looked at this critically and came to a conclusion that this could cause restiveness, that is why we introduced this programme to collaborate with NYCC”, he added. In his contribution, Ayim said described unemployment as a challenge that solutions should be found, admitting that many graduates were working without skills. “The number of graduate unemployment is increasing every year, that is why we are leveraging with NOUN because of it wide range of opportunities”, he said. Ayim disclosed that the Chamber would welcome corporate bodies that have roles to play in human development for sponsorship or interventions.
