World Youth Skills Day: Makinde Emphasizes Importance Of Skills Acquisition
•By Oyeniyi Awojoodu, Ibadan
IBADAN – Oyo State Governor,’Seyi Makinde on Monday urged youth in the state to acquire vocational skills so as to tackle the challenges of poverty and unemployment and make them productive citizens in the society.
The governor, gave the advice in his remarks at a vocational training program organised by the Chief Executive Officer,CEO ,De’rayo Vocational Limited, Aminat Aderayo Animasaun in collaboration with the state government to mark the 2024 World Youth Skills Day held at the Amphitheatre, Racecourse, Adamasingba, Ibadan.
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Governor Makinde who was represented at the event by the Chairman, Oyo State Agency for Youth , Hon. Falana Adebayo, lauded the initiative which he said will compliment the state government efforts at job creation to reduce unemployment rate among the teeming youth.
“I must confess to you, it is a laudable event seeing the youth of the state around coming together to learn one or two skills organised by De’rayo.
“Coming here to see this , I was marvelled.Seeing the passion in them increases my morale and from the government angle, we are ready to do do more of this subsequently often and often so that we can impact more lives through one skill or the other.”
“My message to youth is that after graduating from school, instead of seeking for white-collar jobs , it is very important that everyone should have one or two skills that will serve as a foundation for their financial strength because with the way the economy is going, they should not rely on white-collar jobs alone.”
“I am imploring the youth out there that in subsequent programmes on skills acquisition like this, they should troupe out en-masse and embraces it.”He said.
The initiator of the programme and CEO De’rayo Vocational Limited, Aminat Aderayo Animasaun, said over 400 participants, were trained in 28 vocational skills which include;
textile design,shoemaking, make up and Gele tying, bead making, cosmetology
fashion design,digital marketing, barbing, hairdressing and photography among others.
“We are here to celebrate vocational skills. Today is July 15, 2024, World Youth Skill Day. which is stamped by the United Nations and celebrated all over the world.”
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“We are here representing our own community, oyo state, an from Ibadan and am happy to host the youth from different local government, we are training them on 28 different vocational skills.”
“We are training them to celebrate vocational skills and that It is important for them to learn a vocational skill so that they can be productive and be useful for our communities.
“We are not only training them, we are inspiring and mentoring them, linking them to trainers to become great leaders in the field of vacational skills.”
She said scholarships for vocational training will be given to 105 youth across the local governments in the state for a six months vocational training programs and will be empowered.
“This is our sixth edition, and am delighted to host over 400 participants, we actually planned for 400, but we have over 400 participants.”
Animashaun, while appreciating the support of the state Agency for Youth Development and trainers urged the youth to see vocational skills as a way of life adding ” you can become a shoemaker and become somebody in life”.
One of the volunteers and trainers of the participants who is also the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Abisal Megatop Limited, Saidat Dauda, said participants were trained on how to turn local crops into finished products such as flour and how to market it and showcase themselves to the community.
She advised the beneficiaries to upgrade themselves in their vocational skills and put it in use for the betterment of the society.
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In their remarks, some of the trainees, Adeniran Bayonle and Tomorrow Hasan described the programme as enlightening urging the youth to acquire vocational skills so as to be useful citizens of the society.