LG Trains 300 Youth In Skills Acquisition

The Port Harcourt City Local Government Area in Rivers has trained more than 300 youths  in various skills and trades.

The Chairman of the council, Chief Azubuike Nmerukini, told the News Agency of Nigeria  (NAN) in Port Harcourt yesterday that the youths were trained for more than six months.

He said that they were trained in skills such as welding, carpentry, hair dressing,  information communication technology, fashion and design.

Nmerukini said the council sponsored the training and had given the trainees some money  to assist them set up their businesses and train others.

“The aim is to make them self-reliant and thereafter, train others from their communities  to be self employed.

“Before now, the local government thought it wise that in any society, everybody must not  be a pen pusher. In a particular place, we set up what we call skill acquisition centre.

“ Today ,we can beat our chest and say that we have trained some people from our local  government in various level of skills.

“Some of them graduated as computer literates; some of them as electricians and welders;  and a lot of them have graduated in various fields in Port Harcourt. We are preparing  shortly to provide them with some take-off grants,” he said.

Nmerukini said work on the council’s skills acquisition training centre had reached  advanced stage and would be used to train the next batch of trainees.

He said that when completed, the council would save funds to train the youths in-house  and source for resource persons from institutions of higher learning.

“We can afford to employ our own staff and use them as trainers for the youths.

“We are happy with the first batch of trainees who passed out because the programme  touched almost all the communities that make up the council,” he added.