
Students undergoing skill training. Credit: guardian.ng
A school-to-work scheme to equip youths to become self-productive and self-employed is being introduced by the Federal Government.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Hammed Bobboyi, disclosed the scheme to commissioners for education, executive chairs of states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Universal Basic Education and UBEC.
In the words of Bobboyi, the target group for the scheme was learners in Junior Secondary Schools (JSS).
The scheme will allow students to detect their potential and talents in academic pursuit and vocational skill development.
He said through this, the generation of students who are leaving school and who are productive, self-employed, as well as contributing to the economic well-being of the country would be made available.
“It will save the country the wastage being experienced after the junior secondary education whereby those who are not academically inclined have no skills to develop for self-sustenance,” said Bobboyi.
According to him, the scheme was structured to provide at least six months of training, broken into two months per year of study in the junior secondary school.
He said during this period basics of a variety of trades would be taught, which learners can leverage at the expiration of their secondary school education.
Bobboyi stated that those who might not be proceeding to senior secondary schools immediately would continue to specialize in their chosen trade until they can establish themselves.
He said before scaling it across the country, the scheme would be piloted in some centres in the states and FCT.
Bobboyi also added that vocational centres were to be established and equipped to support training in various trades in existing junior secondary schools.
Speaking to the Director of Basic Education in the Federal Ministry of Education, Folake Davies, expressed that the scheme was designed to provide youths with the prerequisite necessary to excel whenever they find themselves in the working environment.
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