The Ogun State Skills Fund project under the State Economic Transformation Project (OGSTEP) has concluded plans to train 10,000 individuals cutting across over 10 different types of trades under its pilot scheme while also reviving all the State Technical Colleges across the State.
The immediate past Commissioner for Budget and Planning in the State, Olaolu Olabimtan, while fielding questions from Journalists revealed that the Skills fund was set up as an initiative to support technical and vocational skills in the State towards the production of skilled and employable youths thereby putting an end to lack of adequate skilled man power in work places.
He explained that the skills fund would have people of integrity as Board of trustees who will ensure that the fund is separated from normal government budgetary systems in order to ensure transparency and sustainability.
The Commissioner further hinted that the selection process for the skills fund would be community based, though in a very competitive manner.
He posited that in directing youths back to dignity through labour, it was high-time the society desist from celebrating individuals with questionable sources of wealth , rather to encourage hard-work, diligence and the acquisition of skills.
On his part, the immediate past Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu noted that Government cannot employ everybody as Civil Servants and has therefore provided a means of empowering them and making them employers of labour themselves.
He noted that the skill acquisition programme is a well-structured and technologically driven unlike the traditional skill acquisition method.
Arigbabu further called on parents of interested learners from Junior Secondary School 3 (JSS 3) not to discourage their children and wards from attending the State Technical Colleges as the certification from the colleges would be recognized by creditable bodies and they would still have the opportunity of proceeding to the Universities or Polytechnics in order to be more academically inclined if desired.
Also speaking, at the Government Technical College, Idi-aba, Abeokuta one of the Training Centres, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education Science and Technology in the State Mrs. Olaseni Abosede Ogunleye appreciated the State Government for her effort in tackling the menace of lack of employment especially among youths in the State, saying that the project would go a long way in changing the narrative of the State and launching everyone into a better society. She described handwork as very important all over the world and urged the intending trainees never to take skills acquisition for granted.
Speaking during a sensitization visit to one of the Training Centres in Obada-Oko area of the State, the Project Coordinator, Mrs. Mosunmola Owo-Odusi explained that the Skills development programme through the Ogun State Skills fund under the Ministry of Education Science and Technology is being sponsored through OGSTEP by the World Bank and that the durations for each of the Skills would range from 2 to 9 months.
She further hinted that the trainees were being sourced with due recourse to transparency through a list of registered poor and vulnerable individuals in the State, and that the trainings are standardised through the National Occupational Standards (NOS).
While giving credence to skills acquisition as one of the major means of livelihood , Mrs. Owo-Odusi encouraged intending trainees to show enthusiasm and be focused in the course of the training in order to make not only the State or the nation better but their individual lives as well.
She noted that the State, overtime would become a beehive of trained workers who have the options of going back to school, become service providers themselves or get employed
"Ogun State has over 500 companies who need skilled workers. These are the doers. You will find out that companies close up for lack of manpower and then our people are unable to benefit from these companies and we do not get the economic advancement…
She expressed optimism that in a couple of years, Ogun State would be a place to be envied. ’If the project is sustained and the model improved upon, I see the project being replicated in many other States’’ She concluded.
On his part, the Skills Development Specialist, Mr. Segun Fatoki explained that the Training Service Providers were thoroughly screened to ensure standardization and that a single training programme would be used in all the training Centres for each of the trades to ensure uniformity.
On the issue of non-literate intending trainees, the Consultant said they would first be taken through literacy skills and that no trainee is expected to pay any amount or bring any training tool as Government would provide all.
He further explained that the trainees would be tested on their abilities and that Certificates as well as start-up kits would be given to successful ones adding that the trainees would be monitored for an additional 6 months to ascertain the level of effectiveness of the skills acquired and how it had impacted on their economic wellbeing.
He further disclosed that officials from the Skills Development Sector had embarked on sensitization tour across the four divisions in the State where registration of beneficiaries is on going.
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