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- Begins Journalism, Entrepreneurship, Vocational Academy
From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
A former Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Rt .Hon. Olugboyega Aribisogan, has urged youths in the country to embrace entrepreneurship and vocational skills as a means of earning a living.
The former Speaker who lamented
the high unemployment rate in the country, said entrepreneurship and vocational education remains a veritable means of addressing unemployment among youths and economically empowering them.
Aribisogan said these during the
commissioning of “Africanvoice Int’l Training and Development Academy (AITDA)” in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.
Aribisogan, who is the founder of the Academy said” The ever – increasing population of Nigeria juxtaposed with the economic challenges of the country has led to high rate of unemployment. It has become obvious that government and the formal private sector cannot provide employment for all the youths and graduates in Nigeria today.
” One way to address the problem of unemployment is to equip youths with vocational and entrepreneurial skills which will enable them not only become self-employed but also become employers of labour themselves.”
He noted the Academy will focus on equipping youths with innovative, creative and entrepreneurial skills for employment, career success and future leadership roles in the society.
” The Academy will initially provide training in three focus areas and gradually expand to other areas with time. The three areas to cover for a start are Journalism, Information Technology and Entrepreneurship. The Entrepreneurship training will focus specially on Agriculture value chain.”
” The three Colleges we are starting with are :Africanvoice International School of Journalism and Communication, College of Information Technology and College of Entrepreneurship and Vocational Education.”
Aribisogan added, “the School of Journalism will offer innovative classroom and online programmes that are targeted to ensure positive career outcomes in Journalism and Public Communication in the 21st century. The curriculum will especially equip students on how to leverage on new media and modern communication technology to become successful journalists.
” The College of Information Technology will equip students with IT skills to enable them perform optimally in their chosen careers and become competitive in the global arena.
” The College of Entrepreneurship and Vocational Education will focus on equipping our youths with innovative, creative and entrepreneurial skills.”
According to the founder, “the Academy is a registered private educational institutions that has been approved by Ekiti State Board of Technical and Vocational Education. The Academy will collaborate with governmental agencies, development partners, Non-governmental Organizations(NGOs) and other educational institutions to achieve the objective of enhancing the productive capacity of human capital for sustained productivity and development.”
Earlier in her welcome address, the chairman, planning committee, Mrs. Yemisi Ayokunle, said the Academy is a unique educational institution which was conceived to provide both academic knowledge and intensive hands-on training for its students and trainees thereby ensuring that they become competent, confident and competitive in their chosen careers.
“The Academy will provide refresher and capacity building programmes for already employed workers and professionals who wish to update their knowledge and or sharpen their skills.”
