Ugo Aliogo, Bonny Oriarehu and Amaka Akpa
As part of efforts to address the unemployment challenges in Nigeria, the Executive Secretary, Knowledge Exchange Centre (KEC), Maria Glover, has stated that the desire of the group to train and equip 500 youths with employability skills required for employment in corporate organisations.
Glover who disclosed this weekend in Lagos at the maiden edition of the KEC Career Workshop 1.0 tagged: ‘Winning in the 21st Century Job Market’, organised by KEC in conjunction with the Lagos State Ministry of Wealth Creation, said the group is focused on bridging the skills gap in the labour. She stated that there is a mismatch in the labour market which she noted, revealed a situation where there are unemployed graduates without the requisite skills employers are looking for.
According to Glover, the main focus of the group is to find out opportunities which would allow them bridge the gap identified in the labour, stressing that some of the activities, the group is involved include the employability skills training, entrepreneurship training, and organising workshops.
Glover explained that the workshop was targeted at unemployed graduates, noting that their focus in the conference was to try to build the skills of the graduates to the standards required by employers of labour, “giving the opportunities to expose them to employers of labour.â€
She further stated that the two-day workshop has exposed the graduates to curriculum vitae writing, training, exposing them to employers of labour, personal development and career planning, interview skills and others.
“Since we started, we have trained about 400 people, and have recorded about 80 percent success. Some of these individuals have been employed and others have started their businesses. We really want to scale that is why we are targeting not less than 500 individuals.
The rate of unemployment in the country is quite high and the number of people is so huge. I know that if everyone is doing something the issue of unemployment in the country will reduce. Partnership is the way to go, therefore we are partnering with all our organisations. Partnership is needed to tackle social problems in the society. The Lagos state government led by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, has been very proactive in tackling unemployment in the state through the Ministry of Wealth Creation. I really impressed with this particular government because they are doing a lot.â€
