From Chidi Nnadi, Enugu
The Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu has advised the federal and state governments to invest in vocational training and skill acquisition as a way of enhancing the employment of youths in the country.
Ekweremadu who spoke at the weekend in Enugu during the inauguration of a vocational training institute, Learn and Work European Vocational School, Enugu, lamented that the unemployment rate in the country has remained high because of the failure of the government to come up with progressive and pragmatic strategies of resolving the challenges.
The European Vocational School, which Ekweremadu is the promoter but managed by the CEPU Education Group, Italy, is designed to train young people in different skills, including web design, plumbing, tailoring/dress making, home nursing among others.
In a chat with newsmen at the flag off of the programme, the deputy Senate president decried a situation where tertiary institutions in the country graduate thousands of ‘unemployable people’ annually.
He, therefore, pointed out that the vocational training school has been packaged to fill the gap in the system.
“It’s really unfortunate that we have engineers that can’t construct anything; we have technicians that can’t fix anything. We have plumbers who are just disasters,” he said.
He expressed optimism that the institution would in the next five years effectively address the problem of unemployment as those who pass through the school would not only be meaningfully engaged, but would also have their minds taken away from crimes and unnecessary agitations.
According to him, after six months, those who graduate from the institute would be encouraged to access soft loans from the Bank of Industry to set up their own businesses in order to become self-reliant and employers of labour.
“We must come to terms with the fact that government alone cannot solve our problems. Civil and public services cannot provide jobs for the entire populace. We must invest in vocational training, otherwise in the next 50 years, the nation will be in a serious problem,” he said.
Earlier, the President of the Institute, Dr Francheto Politori identified education as a driving force that would assist nations in their development initiatives.
He disclosed that the vocational school was one of their packages for Nigeria, noting that they had plans to organise other types of professional courses and opening of schools starting from kindergarten to high school, and the universities.
Speaking on the occasion, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi who was represented by the chairman of PDP, Enugu State, Chief Augustine Nnamani, declared the readiness of his administration to partner with the institute in order to help the teeming young people in the state.
He pledged his readiness to provide the necessary incentives to ensure the realisation of the set objectives of the school.