Abia Kicks Off Education For Employment Programme

The Abia State Education for Employment Programme (E4E) will in the next 48 months graduate over 100,000 youths trained in various technical and vocational skills to take up jobs in industries or be self-employment and help grow the economy.

The full Technical Vocational Educational Training, which will take off in November with already screened 100 students, will be in three pilot Technical Colleges selected from each of the three senatorial zones in the state. The chosen colleges are Boys’ Technical College for Abia South zone; Secondary Technical Umuahia for Abia Central and Government Technical Ohafia for Abia North.

Launching the programme at Boys’ Technical College Aba, during the week, the State Deputy Governor Ude Oko Chukwu, who represented the State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu presented an E4E- branded bus to each of the three schools. He said, “E4E is an employment generating programme that will only succeed when the private sector keys into it, adding that the policy aims at reviving Technical Vocational Education in Abia State.

Abia State in general and Aba in particular is an industrial and technical hub hence the various factories need manpower while the various creative processes require skills and finesse to maximize available opportunities,” he noted.

The Deputy Governor urged the private sector to embrace the programme.
E4E Coordinator, Mr. Endi Ezengwa of Kiara College United Kingdom, who has since relocated to Nigeria, said the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Eme Okoro, has flagged off the distribution of forms for the registration of unemployed youths in the 17 local councils in the state.