Business
228 Youths Benefit From ITF Programme
A total number of 228
trainees would benefit from an Industrial Training Fund Programme billed to end by December 7, 2013.
The Coordinator, Rivers West Senatorial District of the programme Hon. Otuwarikpo Reddy who spoke to our correspondent yesterday at Ahoada said the training included fishery, tiling, interlocking and ICT among others.
He said the programme known as “National Industrial Skills Development Programme” (NISDP) was organised by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF).
The Coordinator said worried by the rate of joblessness among youths who were out of school, the government decided to come up with the programme to help develop youths with special skills to enable them grow.
“Presently, we have a lot of jobless youths who are out of school with no skills and when government wants to help people you find out that they have no skill” he said.
He revealed that at the expiration of the programme the government would empower the beneficiaries with some loan to enable them start their own business in the areas they have been trained.
Also speaking, the Training Development Officer of ITF, Mr. Ezinma Kashimire said the programme was designed to help those at the grassroots level.
He explained that when government decided to grant amnesty only to those who carried guns some people felt cheated.
He said this programme also intends to reach out to those who may feel alienated by the Federal Government’s gesture.
On complains by some of the trainees that the programme may go the way of earlier ones, Mr. Kashmire said any serious and reasonable trainee should not wait for government, their parents or otherwise to start up something as soon as they finish their training.
he said the programme was a pilot one and logistics from government was not forthcoming.
he said the scheme, a brain child of the ITF was capital intensive even as he said specialised areas like welding and electrical installation among others were deliberately excluded from the programme.