The National Youth Service Corps on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Gombe State University on skills acquisition.
The occasion, held at the NYSC Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Centre in the Lafiyawo community of Akko Local Government Area of Gombe State, included youth entrepreneurship training.
The Director-General of NYSC, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Fadah, said the need for youth vocational training had become imperative to address other challenges.
Fadah said that the event demonstrated the scheme’s commitment to empowering the youth to become employers of labour, self-reliant, and to create wealth.
“It is also in line with one of the cardinal points of our policy thrust, which is to improve the gains of the NYSC ventures and the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Programme,” he said.
Fadah, represented by Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, Director of Legal Services, NYSC Directorate Headquarters, said the challenge of unemployment requires collective efforts of all stakeholders to address.
He explained that the idea of the specialised training is to steer youths’ mindset from pursuing white-collar jobs to entrepreneurial engagement, which would put them in a better position to contribute to the nation’s economic development.
According to him, the programme will help curb youth restlessness, criminal tendencies, drug abuse, and other social vices.
Fadah said the partnership with GSU was informed by the desire to optimise the benefits of the NYSC Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Centre.
“Apart from the corps members for whom the centre was originally conceived, this partnership will enable us accommodate the training of students of the university and other youths of the host community,” Fadah said.
Similarly, Prof Aliyu El-Nafaty, the Vice Chancellor of GSU, said the university would help organise the training in a formal setting with certification issued to participants.
The centre, with a capacity for 300 trainees, has facilities for different skills and hostels for male and female trainees.
(NAN)
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