Ambode pledges commitment to sustainable youth development

Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos on Tuesday pledged commitment to capacity building, entrepreneurship, empowerment and sustainable youth development to reduce unemployment in the state.

Ambode, who was represented by his deputy, Dr Idiat Adebule, made the pledge at the graduation of second batch of students who participated in the Lagos State ‘Ready, Set Work’ initiative.

He said that the future of the state was in the hands of the youth who constituted a significant portion of the population.

‘‘This administration took into cognizance the looming army of unemployed youths, graduates and potential graduates who have become disillusioned by the harsh economic realities of the time, as a potential recipe for disaster.

‘‘To tackle this headlong, the ‘Ready, Set, Work’ initiative was established as an employability and entrepreneurship programme, aimed at preparing final year students for immediate entry into the workforce as employees and employers of labour.

‘‘The initiative will equip them with market-aligned knowledge, soft skills, business tools and a mindset reorientation to the world of work.

‘‘It is a fact that a university degree shows people what you have done; beyond graduation, it is on you to show what you can do,’’ he said.

The governor reiterated his administration’s resolve to provide support for graduates to achieve their entrepreneurial potential to enable them to contribute their quotas to the state’s social- economic development.

‘‘We would put more efforts in boosting the potential of the initiative to develop our youths to enhance human capacity that will grow the economy of our state to the third largest in Africa by year 2020,” Ambode added.

Speaking on behalf of the heads of institutions, Prof. Olanrewaju Fagboun, Vice-Chancellor, Lagos State University, said that there was need for the nation’s higher institutions to go beyond training job seekers to train job creators.

Fagboun expressed the hope that the ‘Ready, Set, Work’ initiative would drive productive employment for sustainable growth and development.

In his remarks, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh, Special Adviser to Gov. Ambode on Education, said that the initiative was in government’s response to the private sector complaints about poor quality of Nigerian graduates.

Bank-Olemoh said that the state government decided to raise the standard of Nigerian graduates through the initiative so that they could make a difference and compete effectively with their peers globally.

According to him, Nigeria has the intellect, capacity and youths to boost its productivity and improve the economy.

Our correspondent reports that no fewer than 12,000 final year students from the state’s six higher institutions of learning enrolled for the 13-week entrepreneurship and employability training.

Out of the 12, 000 students, 1,500 were selected and placed on internship in over 70 organisations for the next six months with monthly allowances.

The 2017 edition of ‘Ready, Set, Work’ edition which commenced in July ended in September.