17th April, 2012
The Lagos State government has unveiled fresh strategies to reduce unemployment among school leavers and graduates in Lagos, southwest Nigeria.
The government stated that school leavers and graduates constituted 70 per cent of state’s total population.
The new strategies to reduce unemployment are the School Leavers Modern Apprenticeship, SL-MATP and Graduate Vocational Employability Skills Training Programme, GV-ESTP.
Executive Secretary, Lagos State Technical and Vocational Education Board, LASTVEB, Mr. Olawumi Jasper, explained that the population “grows exponentially and currently put at 18 million, 70 per cent of whom are below 35 years, in danger of harbouring most misdirected, unskilled and angry youths ready to engage in criminal activities.
According to Jasper, Governor Babatunde Fashola would formally launch the programmes on 17 April with captains of industries, organised private sector and employers of labour in the state in attendance.
Jasper said the SL-MATP “is designed to provide both work-based on the job training in industries and accredited workshops and college-based instructions in the state technical colleges so that the Lagos youths can have the full range of skills and knowledge for a highly skilled occupation.
“The programme is primarily designed to attract the very large school leavers JAMB casualties by providing technical training towards producing self-reliant, competent skilled young boys and girls early in life, dedicated to becoming self-employed and entrepreneurs.
“The graduate programme is designed to provide employability and vocational trainings to graduate apprentices, create employment, produce skilled and competent young people to support the local content act, conserve the nation’s foreign exchange and actualise the state government’s vision,” he said
According to him, school leavers who enrolled for SL-MATP would spend between nine months and two years, depending on desired trade and occupation while the graduates that enrol for GV-ESTP combining vocational trainings with employability skills would complete the programme in nine months.
“LASTVEB has forged collaboration with industry partners, training providers and workshops and garages. The partners include Highbury College as a Strategic Partner and Department for International Development under GEMS 2 providing support to and capacity development for a planning, monitoring and quality assurance (PMQA) system for SL-MATP among others.
—Kazeem Ugbodaga