BY ANKELI EMMANUEL, Sokoto –
A Non Governmental Organization (NGO), Save The Child Initiative (STCI), Nigeria has advised youths in Sokoto State to acquire skills alongside formal education.
The Head of Mobility, Migration and Protection of STCI Nigeria, Malam Rabiu Gandi made the call on Friday during an event to mark the World Youths Skills Day at the Sokoto Government Technical College, Runjin Sambo.
Malam Gandi said unemployment rate is on the increase because everyone depends on educational certificates and all are looking for white collar job that is not even available.
According to him, the 2023 World Youth Skills Day as organized by STCI, Nigeria is being supported by Plan International EU-INTPA with the theme”, Skilling Teachers, Trainers and Youths for A Transformative Future”.
He said the aim is to highlight the essential roles teachers, trainers and other educators play in providing skills that will equip the youths for labour markets, and make them relevant entrepreneurs in their communities and societies, adding that emphasis should now be on “skillstificate”.
In his appeal to Nigerian youths, Gandi, said the time has come for them to change their mindsets and embrace skills, adding that those with skills are self reliant and never unemployed, rather employers of labour.
He further noted that hence skilled youths are not jobless, they can not be easy preys in the hands of organizers of bad evils, such as bandits, terrorism, and other crimes.
Stating objectives of the World Youth Skills Day, Mr Joseph Julius, the Project Coordinator, EU-INTPA Plan International Nigeria, said the project as funded by European Union through Plan International is intended to get the youths into acquiring skills.
Mr Julius advised teachers to have sustainability mechanism by striving to engage in skills and entrepreneurship.
In his goodwill message, a representative of the State Ministry of Science and Technology, Bala Shehu said no society can progress without skilled labour, saying that a technical man or woman can never be unemployed.
Mr. Shehu, who advised youths to be of strong faith and dare the impossibility by striving towards turning their ideas into possibilities, however appealed to Sokoto State Government to consider establishing a female technical school.
On his part, Alhaji Mustapha, a Deputy Director, Planning and Research in the State said the issue of skills in underdeveloped and developing parts of the world is very important considering the global realities where Nigeria is left far behind.
He also decried that even in Nigeria, where youths of other regions are concerned about technological development, youths in parts of the north are interested in becoming a liability by seeking for charity rather than contributing to their quota to the economy.
“Youths of nowadays have derailed from community assistant mindsets to wanting for the government to provide everything for them and also depending on handouts from wealthy people in the society”.
Mustapha further appealed to the youths to be entrepreneurially minded and have a digital skill in addition.
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