The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gombe State University (GSU) on skills acquisition.
The occasion, held at the NYSC Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Centre in Lafiyawo community of Akko Local Government Area of Gombe State, included entrepreneurship training for youths.
The Director-General (DG) of NYSC, Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Fadah, said the need for vocational training for youths had become imperative to address other challenges.
Fadah said that the event was a demonstration of the scheme’s commitment to empowering the youth to become employers of labour, self-reliant and to create wealth.
“It is also in line with one of the cardinal points of our policy thrust, which is to improve the gains of the NYSC ventures and the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Programme,” he said.
Fadah, represented by Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, Director of Legal Services, NYSC Directorate Headquarters, said the challenge of unemployment requires collective efforts of all stakeholders to address.
He explained that the idea of the specialised training is to steer the mindset of youths from that of pursuing white collar jobs to entrepreneurial engagement which would put them in better position to contribute to the nation’s economic development.
According to him, the programme will help in curtailing youth restlessness, criminal tendencies, drug abuse and other social vices.
Fadah said the partnership with GSU was informed by the desire to optimise the benefits of the NYSC Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Centre.
“Apart from the corps members for whom the centre was originally conceived, this partnership will enable us accommodate the training of students of the university and other youths of the host community,” Fadah said.
Similarly, Prof Aliyu El-Nafaty, the Vice Chancellor of GSU, said the university would help organise the training in a formal setting with certification issued to participants.
El-Nafaty added that GSU would deploy manpower and instructors to the centre toward effective use of the facilities available at the centre in order to improve the employment status of youths in the state.
According to El-Nafaty, the institution which is expected to commence in-take by December is open to all youths in the state.
He advised youths to take advantage of the modern facilities at the centre and the highly qualified instructors to get theoretical and practical training that would help them become self-reliant.
The centre, with capacity for 300 trainees, has facilities for different skills as well as hostels for male and female trainees.
