The Lagos State Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment has engaged recruitment agencies, off-takers and sponsors to secure placement for candidates of its Graduate Internship Placement Programme.
GIPP is an employability skills programme that provides three weeks of training for first-degree holders and the selected graduates undergo training, followed by placement with partnering organisations for three months.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ forum on GIPP at NECA House Event Centre, Ikeja, on Tuesday, the Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Akinyemi Ajigbotafe, said the essence was to strengthen the partnership with the organisations towards empowering more youths in the state and take them off the streets.
Ajigbotafe said the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had invested so much in GIPP, and despite the substantial training provided by the state government, many trained candidates had yet to secure internship placement within organisations.
He said, “The Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has done so well bringing people together to see how they can become employable because we are training people as government to see how we can take the graduates off the streets.
“We trained them and after this training, Mr Governor has made room for us to see how these people can work as interns in different organisations and we know we cannot do this alone and we need to bring in the private sector to see how we can collaborate.
“Today, we are discussing with the recruitment agencies on how we further engage the youths so when we train them, they can offtake them from the government and we want a marriage that will last for long, so we want continuity and will ensure that things will be done periodically to see how the private sector can help us to take our young graduates off the streets and engage them.”
In his remarks, the Managing Partner at Human Capital Partners, Innocent Oseghe, applauded the initiative of the government aimed at strengthening the workforce and ensuring career transformation.
He highlighted some of the challenges facing the programme as limited availability of internship slots, financial constraints and sponsorship limitations, proximity to placement locations, and lack of responsiveness from off-takers, among others.
