How unemployed youths are getting trained in Cross River

For instance, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in collaboration with the Cross River State government has established the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) which headquarters is located in the five-storey Prof Eyo Ita building on Marian Road, Calabar to serve the South-South part of the country. When former Governor of the CBN, Malam Sanusi Lamido […]

For instance, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in collaboration with the Cross River State government has established the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) which headquarters is located in the five-storey Prof Eyo Ita building on Marian Road, Calabar to serve the South-South part of the country.
When former Governor of the CBN, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi declared it open last year with fanfare, he said that the bank was investing several millions of Naira to boost enterprise and the training of people particularly unemployed school leavers on all aspect of technical and business education, adding that this was deliberate as the bank has established such centres in other geographical regions of the country.  
Since then, many young Nigerians particularly those from Cross River State have enrolled in the different courses which duration ranges from three to six months and one year. This no doubt has boosted and given them an edge in employability and private businesses.  
Senate leader Victor Ndoma-Egba sponsored 120 youths from his constituency and further gave them start-up capital. His counterpart representing Cross River North, Prof Ben Ayade did similarly recently while the state government has subsidized the fees for its indigenes.
Director General of the state Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MEDA), Mr Ignatius Atsu confirmed that the state has set aside different funds to boost enterprise of youths, women and the unemployed.
Similarly, the need to further build the capacity of Nigerian graduates churned out by our tertiary institutions was recently emphasized at The Bridge Leadership Foundation’s Third Graduate Employability Training.  
TBLF was founded in 2011 by Governor Liyel Imoke. It is a leadership and mentoring Foundation committed to building generations of young people educated to become compassionate, entrepreneurial and engaged citizens who are empowered to take responsibility for their own lives and for making a difference in the world.

According to Mrs Ini Onuk who is the acting director of the Foundation, over N8 million has been spent so far for capacity building and specialized training.
Onuk enthused that even though, the B Foundation is not a profit making venture, they are passionate in spreading of its tentacles to help young people add more  value to the basic qualifications which they acquired from schools so that they can make themselves employable.
She urged the participants to get themselves involved in volunteer jobs or selfless services as such job may not only help them boost their curriculum vitae, but it may catapult them into higher opportunities given the fact that such selfless service may come with huge work experience which may be needed by empoyers of labour.
At the third batch training, 80 graduates were trained on Personal and Career development skills with a view to enhancing the employability potentials of young people in the Cross River State. 120 graduates have so far benefited from the Graduate Employability Training.  
TBLF aims at enhancing the skill set of entry level workforce in Cross River State.  It has different array of training. For instance, The Graduate Employability Training ignites the drive for continuous personal development in the beneficiaries and their close contacts, creates high value personnel, thereby improving the quality of the active labour force in Cross River State.
The one week programme was powered by faculty of nine  facilitators who covered different workshops sessions ranging from grooming, personal and corporate etiquette, resume development, interviewing techniques, communication and ICT skills as well as entrepreneurship and sales skills development.

Programmes Officer of the Foundation, Esther Eshiet said, “The successes recorded with the first two sets of the training has necessitated the implementation of the third batch; the Foundation is providing young people the platform to learn from the best of Human Resource Managers in Nigeria; in fulfillment of its commitment to raise generations of transformational leaders”.
The GET  included training sessions on: Self-Discovery, Personality Analysis, How to Craft a Winning CV, Tips on Job Interviews & Tests, Developing Excellent Writing Skills, Communication and ICT skills, Entrepreneurship and Sales development, Time Management as well as  Personal Grooming &  Business Etiquette.
In his remarks, the Head Human Capital Management Shared Services of Diamond Bank Lagos Branch, Mr. Pat Mbagwu and his counterpart Human Resource Business Partner Recruitment, Mr. Kene Nwosu, encouraged participants on the techniques to be applied when they appear before interview panels and how to sustain the job after being employed.
They urged participants not to fake characters that originally are not theirs given the fact that most panelists maybe men and women with enormous expertise on psychology.
Similarly, the Dreamboat Foundation, a Calabar based, NGO led by Edisua Ita has enrolled 2000 students from 15 Secondary Schools in Cross River to carry out advocacy on tax payment.
“The fifteen schools and their teachers have done marvelous work. We have done one-on-one talks to parents.
“We have printed magazines, poems, drama and dance to advocate for regular tax payments by parents, ‘’ Ita said.
With the avalanche of training organisations and interest shown by NGOs to support governments in training ill-equipped youths, there’s a big hope that unemployment queues will reduce in the state.