Lagos set to empower one million young people in digital skills

 The Lagos State Government led by Governor Babajide SanwoOlu, through the office of the Special Adviser on Education, Mr. Tokunbo Wahab, in June 2020, kicked off ‘Jobs Initiative Lagos’ (www.jobsinlagos.ng) – an initiative that is targeted at young people in eight Lagos-based tertiary institutions.

This initiative will see to the complementary training of students in their ultimate and penultimate year in entrepreneurship, employability and basic digital skills required for the workplace. The essence of the programme is to account for the documented gaps in current curriculum that bedevil the employment market and to increase labour employability of graduates.

Candidates who complete the programme will get an opportunity to be featured on a jobs portal from where partner corporate organisations can select fresh graduates for recruitment.

This initiative will run alongside a more robust digital skills campaign ‘Digital Skills Initiative Lagos’ (www.dsilagos.ng) aimed at empowering over one million young people in the state by 2023 with digital skills, which will invariably position Lagos as the Tech Hub of Africa.

Students in secondary schools in Lagos would have access to well-trained instructors while those out of school would access digital skills training and various internship opportunities as they complete the programmes.

The projects are being coordinated by LoftyInc Allied Partners Limited – an innovation development company that develops start-up teams, manages innovation programmes and facilitates impact projects in West Africa. An award-winning pioneer in Nigeria’s innovation sector, LoftyInc, is in partnership with Microsoft, VMware’s IT Academy, Wennovation Hub, LoftyInc Capital Management and a host of other corporates.

The first phase of Jobs Initiatives Lagos kicked off in June and will continue over the next four months leveraging a virtual learning platform while the Digital Skills Initiative Lagos will commence virtually until the ease of the lockdown necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two programmes are in sync with the Themes Agenda of Governor Sanwo-Olu in Lagos, wherein education is a key pillar with the multiplier effect of human capital development on the whole ecosystem. The programme is an initiative of the Lagos State Ministry of Education and supervised by the Office of Special Adviser led by Mr. Tokunbo Wahab.  (The Nation)