February 24, (THEWILL) – It is indisputable that youths constitute the largest population across the Globe. And as such, not to pay attention to this critical mass of society fan youth upheavals, absence of sustainable growth/development, erosion of positive values, while breeding unhealthy culture, such as gangs of kidnappers, sea pirates, hoodlums, drug addiction and other anti-social behaviour.
It is pertinent to note that the global economy is at the feet of governments at all levels that dare to explore the entrepreneurial space, as it would virtually give birth to a new model known as digital economy, which holds the key to redress the challenges of youth unemployment.
The homogeneous Ijaw State, Bayelsa, has continued to evolve plans to engage these critical masses in a bid to redirect their energies to stimulate the economic growth and development of the state.
Successive governments have tried to harness the potential of the youths to increase the state Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to hit N2bn, but they are unable to unlock the possibility.
However, the Bayelsa State Governor, Sen Douye Diri’s Prosperity Government, has made an inroad to unlock the economy through the foundation laying of the “Diri Industrial Skills and Entrepreneurship Training Scheme (DIETS), conceptualised by his Commissioner for Labour, Employment and Productivity, Hon Braboke Stanley Enaibagha.
The Governor, who appreciated the dynamism and changes in approach, has repeatedly barred his interest in promoting technical and vocational training as against the few and almost none existing space to absorb degree holders seeking for the limited white collar Jobs.
Accordingly, Diri emphasised that it is no gain saying that most degree holders who get absorbed in the few available firms are usually unable to fit into the technical and technology deplored to get the job done, hence the in-house training by various establishments to enable them fit in.
The Governor, in synergy with the Commissioner for Labour, Employment and Productivity, Hon. Braboke, concluded to create and expand a pool of employable youths through modern skills acquisition that would be in high demand to enable them take up available jobs of leading firms locally and at the international level.
Continuing, beside taking up leading jobs, the gesture would turn out many entrepreneurs who would contribute to the industrial growth and development of the state economy, as most of the trained Bayelsans would become self-reliant and become employers of labour.
DIETS also seeks to equip youths who have not received tertiary education with skills and certification to stimulate the state’s economy, even as the Governor noted that sequel to the growing population of youths across the globe, it would spell doom for government at all levels not to pay urgent and serious attention.
Diri averred that to ensure that idleness among the youths does not trigger upheaval and challenges, even the Development Finance Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with Godwin Emefiele as Governor is also working with the private sector to support youth entrepreneurs through funding and capacity building.
The Governor posited that the Prosperity Government is desirous to ensure that the teeming young Bayelsans earn a decent living and be pulled away from the company of criminals.
It was for this reason that the Bayelsa State Government, already in synergy with AfricanTide Technical Training and Education Centre (ATTEC), in the Construction of a “SMART HOUSE”, announced the outright take over of the project from the foundation laying to completion.
The Smart House is the centre of all training; vocation and technical, as well as industrial and entrepreneurship skills acquisition, with a target that all skills required or sought locally and on the international level would be turned out, and in no distant time, all jobs be taken by graduating students of Smart House.
The Governor enjoined the State Commissioner for science and technology, Hon Promise Ekiyor, to partner with the Supervising Commissioner of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Hon Braboke and the President of ATTEC, Dr Rosalyn Dressman, towards the completion of the Smart House for youth development.
Diri, who dedicated the project to the youths, noted that Hon Braboke has done well, while stressing that Bayelsa would not be left out in the present era, which is technology driven; and that DIETS would eradicate poverty, create employment and thereby free the congested Labour market, as the saying goes, there is dignity in labour.
The Governor submitted that his administration, christened “Prosperity Government”, would be a reliable partner with the youths in their journey to prosperity and to actually become leaders of tomorrow.
Diri, who is elated that some of the trainees are graduate from different disciplines, but yet to get employed should not discouraged or dettered, but charged them to prove their worth in safety management, plumbing, solar energy, building, construction, basic architecture, electrical, wood work, physics, mathematics, English among others course outlined in the timetable which are in high demand in today’s market.
The Supervising Commissioner of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Hon Braboke, had explained that the DIETS is founded on three cardinal pillars, to enable the youths accumulate wealth, thereby eradicating poverty in line with the Sustainable Development Goal I – No Poverty, it would put food on the tables in line with SDG 2 – Zero Hunger and the enthronement of a decent work environment and economic growth in tandem with SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth.
He submitted that DIETS would serve as an umbrella name for other entrepreneurial skills development training programmes, as it would afford the ministry ample opportunity to instil order and an effective monitoring of training programmes to adequately fulfil the prosperity vision of the Diri-led government.
Braboke explained further the shift in conventional building pattern to a more technology oriented model that has made Germany, China, United Arab Emirate (UAE) and the United States to be in the forefront as technologically advanced countries.
To this end, Braboke noted that sequel to the construction of the Smart House in Yenagoa, Bayelsa Youths are set to take the lead in the construction of Smart House in Nigeria, which also put the state on limelight as the first state in the South-South with fully automated Smart House entrepreneurship training for the construction of Smart Houses and experts in other entrepreneurial skills.
President of ATTEC, Rosalyn Dressman, lauded Governor Diri for the constant release of counterpart funding, as well as the policy statement that the government is outrightly taking over the construction of the building from foundation to completion.
Dressman, averred that the youths would actualise the vision of the prosperity government, as most of them beyond their degrees would receive practical training and vocational training that would make them self-reliant to generate more income to the state and stimulate improved Internally Generated Revenue.
The President of ATTEC, however, assured Governor Diri that the synergy to build and develop the youths would in the short run change the narrative of the state from being a consuming state to a producing one.
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