The Federal Government has announced that 47,000 Nigerian youths have applied for its Work Experience Programme (WEP) so far.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, at a virtual meeting with Connected Development (CODE), a civil society organization, on Wednesday. The Minister said that Nigerians applied for the programme through the Ministry’s website.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the WEP project is one of the series of economic sustainability projects being implemented by the Federal Government to bridge the gap in practical work skills against unemployment.
What the Minister said
“The ministry alone cannot deal with the issues confronting our youths, ranging from training, employment, support, entrepreneurship, grants, to soft loans.
“That is why other stakeholders like the Humanitarian affairs and industry ministries and about eight other sectors are complimenting government’s efforts by working to ensure that youths are catered for.
“When we came in, we saw that most of our programmmes are done through analogue, forms are printed and circulated; I found that very limiting because that means if you are not close to Abuja or somebody in government, you can never get that form.
“So when we realised that a large number of our youths are online, we decided to start recruiting for our programmes through the online platforms,” Mr Dare said.
He noted that there were other programmes by the FG to engage with youths including, the stimulus programme, and youths digital skills training in all states, adding that 4,000 plus youths undergoing the training across the country would be completing the program shortly.
“We will begin other trainings to enable us reach the target of 200,000 youths with requisite skills,” he stated.
He also revealed that the Ministry was working to see that the National Youth Policy was implemented.
In case you missed it
Nairametrics reported that the Federal Government announced that it disbursed the sum of N56,842,780,000 to over 1,079,323 persons and businesses, including those registered under the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), under the off-take scheme of the Survival fund.
