SURE-P to train 300,000 graduates nationwide on skills programme

THE 21-man committee set up by the government to look into the domestic plight of youth empowerment project of SURE-P has recommended the recruitment of 300,000 Nigerian graduates to be trained on skills acquisition programmes.

The representative of the Project Director of the committee, Mr Edward Adole, explained this in his report submitted on 23rd to 25th March, at Ibro Hotel, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja.

The Director, Mr Peter Papka, said at the weekend in Jos that a total of 248,104 graduates nationwide have registered to participate in the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) programme.

According to him, the scheme makes a deliberate attempt to create a critical bridge that will enable the Nigerian graduate to cross from graduation to workplace.

“This is encouraging as it shows great confidence in the programme from both firms and graduates as SURE-P aims to provide graduates across to acquire professional skills acquisition to be relevant in the society”,he added.

The director explained that:” this gap has been responsible for the claim that many Nigerian graduates are unemployable because they have few skills and no experience to enable them to hit the ground running in the workplace.

We have deliberately included partnering firms and organizations into interns and organization training as part of government commitment in contributing towards enhancement of their capacity in service effectiveness, especially through staff assessment, official etiquette, staff management /development through structure mentorship and other critical lines, which are necessary for growth of any firm and organizations respectively,” he pointed out

He stressed that they are also collaborating with foreign regulatory bodies in meeting federal government’s vision of 20:2020 to ensure that government achieves the set target.

Papka in his speech at the orientation ceremony said some of the graduate interns who ventured into mobile money business are making as much as N20,000 extra income per month and their businesses are expanding .