Lagos Partners UK Cooperative College on Training, Empowerment

Omolabake Fasogbon

The Lagos State Cooperative College (LASCOCO) has struck a partnership deal with the United Kingdom Cooperative College to boost capacity of its students.

The provost of LASCOCO, Mr. Akorede Ojomu disclosed this during a recent working visit to the College by the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Parastatals Monitoring, Mr. Afolabi Ayantayo.

According to Ayantayo, the working agreement between both parties with the UK Cooperative College would allow students and staff of LASCOCO to undergo exchange training programmes in academics and other development areas where support may be required.

He said, “We have concluded agreements with United Kingdom Cooperative College on the exchange training programme. The agreement has been endorsed by the Ministry of Justice in principle and is undergoing final adjustment and as soon as this is done from the Ministry’s end, we are good to go.

“The essence of the programme is to expose our students to the best training in the world on cooperative studies and management in order to achieve and deliver on the College’s mandate of producing highly skilled manpower to the cooperative movement as well as create a platform and opportunities for Nigerians to develop and pursue a career in cooperative business activities”.

He informed also that aside from the international collaboration, the college was liaising with other state government training institutions such as Lagos State University, specialised vocational skill acquisitions centres such as the Women Development Centre, Technological Incubation Development Centre and Ibile Micro Finance.

He noted that the role of collaboration was non-negotiable in achieving major goals.

Ayantayo urged the institution to improve its curriculum for students and enhance service delivery to customers and stakeholders for improved patronage and economic sustainability.

He stressed that cooperative societies were essential to the development of the informal sector of the economy as it engages a high percentage of the populace.

He thus urged the college to train and produce quality personnel to manage cooperative societies for economic growth.