Abia State Governor, Chief Okezie Ikpeazu has stepped up the state youth empowerment scheme by flagging off a three-day ICT induction/training at Kiara College, Umuahia for over 500 youths.
The programme is coming under the state’s Education For Employment (E4E) scheme established to anchor youths empowerment and job creation in the state.
The E4E progrmame emphasises practical skill training according to industry needs rather than theory, to enable the graduates get self- employed or be employed in the industry whose needs had been compiled.
In his address during the opening ceremony of the ICT training at the Aguiyi Ironsi Conference Centre, the state Education Commissioner, Prof Ikechi Mgbeoji, reiterated Governor Ikpeazu’s commitment to the programme despite the lean resources of the state.
The Commissioner was of the view that several developed countries that made a headway economically, were those that gave due attention to technical and vocational education.
More than 50,000 interested youths have been registered for the programme which the government said is a special purpose vehicle utilising modern apprenticeship (work based learning) methods to manage the training of the identified youths across the 17 LGAs of the state
Already, project partners disclosed that a Labour Market Information System (LMIS) has been set up to capture and profile the data of 35,670 unemployed youths in the state as well as the 1, 570 participating members of the organised private sector where they will be placed.
Prof Mgbeoji revealed that the data of potential trainers have also been captured while participants are now being verified and issued with identity/ATM cards in partnership with a named bank to facilitate remittances for their transportation costs to their training centres and post training support where applicable.
The government further explained that after analysing the collected data to date, we have decided to start a pilot project that involves the training of 500 applicants in ‘IT for Practitioners’ course which would enable the graduates gain competency to work as IT Support Staff or establish their own IT Support Centres (Cybercafes).
