Lagos launches graduate internship scheme, to train 2000 youths annually

The Lagos State government has launched its graduate internship scheme, even as it expressed its readiness to train 2000 youths within 12 months.  At the unveiling of the programme and a subsequent meeting with the organised private sector, the Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Mr. Babatude Durosinmi-Etti, explained that the idea of a training […]

The Lagos State government has launched its graduate internship scheme, even as it expressed its readiness to train 2000 youths within 12 months.

 At the unveiling of the programme and a subsequent meeting with the organised private sector, the Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Mr. Babatude Durosinmi-Etti, explained that the idea of a training programme has become expedient as employability skills among teeming unemployed youths was at a worrisome level.

 Durotimi-Etti said that with the planned training programme, graduate interns would be equipped  with necessary tools to improve on their knowledge, skills and character attributes in corporate organization.

 “Unemployment is one of the fundamental development challenges that have faced Nigeria over the past two decades. According to a recent survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 70 per cent of our youths are unemployed,” he stressed.

 He added, “But on our part, we shall be creating an enabling environment. We are working with the private sector in a reorientation to be able to create sustainability. It starts from government to strategies, but government cannot hold what should be the responsibility of the private sector.

 “We have a destitute gap. Private sectors have supported this initiative all along; we should be able to make up that destitute on the part of government.”

 The project manager, Mac Tay consulting firm, Adeyemi Adelakun, said already over a thousand applicants have shown interest in the training programme through the specified internet portal.