In a bid to equip young people with the skills needed to thrive in today’s fast-paced world, the Advocacy Centre for Development and Science Village have graduated 100 youths from its skills training programme.
The Team Lead of AC4D, Ibrahim Yusuf, told Arewa PUNCH that the partnership with the village was based on his centre’s focus on mitigating youth restiveness in the state.
He called on philanthropists to support his organisation’s target of shaping the youths to the right path, adding, “On August 1, 2024, we enrolled 100 for summer school. We have so many ministries departments and agencies that require some of the skills that we teach and parade. Therefore, we are calling on the heads of these MDAs, especially the political leaders, to make sure they engage these young people who acquired these skills because they always say there is no space in the civil service.”
“Since there is no space let the government create the enabling environment for the young people to get access to skills acquisition so that all of them will be engaged the youth unemployment will reduce and ultimately, also youth restiveness and social vices will equally drop to a minimal level.”
Yusuf urged the participants, saying, “They should not just go and sit down. We even challenged them that whatever ideas they have, we can partner with them in getting them scholarship or other forms of business, and we are ready for such.”
The Team Lead further expressed his centre’s focus at maintaining the tempo of empowering youths, adding, “It depends on the resources available to us. This summer school was sponsored by a philanthropist who didn’t want his name mentioned.
“If we can get more philanthropists that can support us, we are ready to continue with it. Not only during the holidays. We have plans to expand the number of persons for our training. If there is political will from the political space, they have more energy to decide the future of this country and the young people.
“We challenge the political class to ensure they do the right thing in creating the space for them and us for partnership.”
Yusuf also called on the government to rethink its policy on students’ admission age, stressing, “I don’t think the policy has seen the light of the day. Within the ministry, the custodians of the policy are having issues with that. If you say you are not admitting until the candidate is 18 years, you will deny a lot of young people who have the talent and skills and the opportunity to be in school the opportunity of being in school is an opportunity so if you deny me the chance to be in school you are killing me, not only me but my entire generation.
“If you are not careful, the person will be demoralised, there will be anxiety, and the person may get hooked on drugs.”
On his part, the Director of the Science Village, Isah Gidado, explained that “camp activities opened during the long vacation in August and this time around we were lucky to get someone who sponsored the group of candidates.”
He maintained, “We had 100 participants; 25 participants per programme. We had four programmes on computer appreciation, 21st-century skills, literacy development for young children, and language proficiency in English and Arabic.”
While calling on the government to support the vulnerable in realising their dreams, Gidado noted the uniqueness of the science village.
He stressed, “We believe our own is unique. We urge sponsors to look at how they can get involved so that the number will continue to scale up, especially as we are embracing learner’s centred teaching methods. So, they can sponsor candidates even if they can’t do it on their own,” he advised.
