In its quest to create jobs for graduates and non-graduates as well as a recovery process for victims of Boko Haram insurgency, the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has flagged-off Environmental Beautification Training Scheme (EBTS) for 34 Yobe indigenes across the 17 Local government councils.
Flagging off the training in Damaturu the state capital, the Director General of the NDE represented by Idris Haruna, disclosed that getting white collar jobs has now become very difficult hence the need for all Nigerians to embrace skills acquisition.
“I urge you to make good use of the opportunity provided, getting white collar jobs is very difficult, you need to pay more attention and learn more because this will help you to be self-reliant in a situation whereby you could not get a government job.
“Many have undergone these training and are doing well and so you are not exceptional, when you put-in your best and learn, very soon you will be an employer of labour that would touch the lives of many citizens,” he said.
Earlier in his welcome address, the state coordinator, Mishabu Dauda, disclosed that many have lost their jobs as a result of the setbacks in the economy and conflicts, saying the training is the only way out.
“There is a need for everyone to diversify by getting another means of income, the government is already over stretched and not all graduates will get government work,” he said.
Some of the beneficiaries who spoke to journalists thanked the federal government for initiating the programme, saying the programe came at a time it was needed most noting that it would bring succour to their lives on completion.
EBTS is a federal government programme designed for the training of unemployed graduates of tertiary institutions and non-graduates in hard and soft landscaping that leads to the acquisition of environmental beautification.
The training involves the posting of unemployed persons to experience trainers to acquire such skills as casting, interlocking stone production and laying, among others.
The training is expected last for three calendar months in which stipends would be given monthly to both the trainees and trainers.
