The  Executive
Director, Society for Youth Research in Nigeria (SYRN), has advised governments
at all levels to invest in skill acquisition and entrepreneurship for
sustainable youth development.

Mr Olawale Rasheed told newsmen that although the Federal
Government had established “You Win” programme to empower the youth, it should
focus on skills acquisition.

According to him, skill acquisition is the process of
learning how to perform tasks that are mechanical in nature, “but through
skills training, youths can be self-employed and keep away from vices”.

He observed that 70 per cent of young people were
unemployed, that the “You Win” programme alone could not provide job
opportunity for the teeming population of the youths in the country, stressing
that governments at all levels must invest in skills acquisition programme to
achieve sustainable and self-development of the youths.

“For governments to address the unemployment issue; that
means, you have to introduce various levels of programme to accommodate various
cadres of unemployed graduates, “And in this case “You Win” may not be
applicable to all unemployed youths; we are supposed to have training
empowerment activity, the federal government alone cannot do it. “In fact, the
idea of looking at federal government to do everything should be obsolete; the
state should invest in skill acquisition centres and skill acquisition
programmes.

He further said “it is not just a matter of citing youth
skill acquisition centre it is beyond that now, there is nothing wrong with
having youth skill acquisition centre in each local government. “The level of
unemployment is so high that for us to address it we must go beyond the piece
meal approach. “So, the state government should invest in skill acquisition
centre, the local government should also do the same. “My advice to the various
levels of government is that, we should invest more in skill acquisition
centres and engage the youth in entrepreneurship training, and open up access
to capital for youths to run profitable businesses.”

Rasheed identified lack of access to capital as a factor
hindering economic growth and advised governments to create enabling
environment for young people to enable them access loan to promote
entrepreneurship.

He lauded the introduction of skill acquisition training in
the school curriculum for polytechnic students, saying that “it is a right step
in the right direction towards driving skills development’’.

Rasheed, who is also the Special Assistant to former Minster
of Youth Development, suggested a comprehensive census of jobless people to
ease planning and implementation of job creation.

He advised young people to engage in skills acquisition and
entrepreneurship training for their self-development.

The SYRN is an NGO is focused on contributing towards youth
development by way of policy formation and implementation advocacy in Nigeria.