In furtherance of its commitment to nurturing Delta youths into entrepreneurs, business owners, and job and wealth creators, the State Government has engaged 1,000 unemployed youths in its 2020/2021 STEP and YAGEP Cycles.
The Chief Job and Wealth Creation Officer of the Delta State Job and Wealth Creation Bureau, Prof Eric Eboh, disclosed this during the Orientation and Personal Effectiveness Training (OPET) held for enrollees into the Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP) in Asaba.
Prof Eboh stated that the vision of the bureau is to train, equip, empower and support youths in occupational skills and entrepreneurship development for self-employment and wealth creation, adding that the overall goal is to leave a lasting legacy of a new generation of youth entrepreneurs who are well motivated, highly inspired, properly skilled, and adequately enabled for self-employment.
He said over 5,000 youths have been trained and established in their choice enterprises, either vocational skills or agricultural enterprises, in the past five and half years of the Okowa-led administration, stressing that 1, 000 youths are being engaged in the 2020/2021 STEP/YAGEP Cycle, with STEP targeting 600 beneficiaries and YAGEP 400.
According to him, “Training is very important. Any opportunity you have to be trained, use it. Empowerment is about developing yourself and accepting responsibility. The 2020/2021 STEP enterprises include Welding and Fabrication with 8 months training duration; Fashion Design and Tailoring (7 months); Tiling and Interlocking (6 months); Electrical Installation and Solar Works (8 months); Catering and Confectionery (4 months); Hairdressing and Braiding (4 months)Audio-Visual services (4 months); PoP, Painting and Screed-Making (4 months).”
While listing quality, discipline and integrity as the hallmark of the high success rate recorded in the programme, he said that everyone desired to be part of the programme because of the quality of the job creation brand. He stressed that the essence of the workshop is to give the trainees the right mindset to impact in them the skills, the virtue and the attributes that would make them succeed in the training programme under the STEP initiative of the Governor of Delta State.
“The quality of the training and the support package is superb. It is an organized programme. The training manual is available both to the trainers and the trainees, that is the quality that the job creation programme represents. Discipline is another reason for its attractiveness. We do not condone indiscipline. If you do not have time for this programme, you will be shown the way out,” he warned.
“Personal effectiveness is the most important elements for success in the training programme and what we impact in the trainees is that they cannot succeed as an entrepreneur if they are not personally effective,” he remarked.
On his part, the Executive Assistant to the Governor on Youth Monitoring and Mentoring (DYMM), Mr. Edward Mekwunye, in his lecture, “The Role and Activities of Directorate of Youth Monitoring and Mentoring in Relation to STEP Trainees,” said the mandate of DYMM was to sustain the success recorded in the programme over the years.
He notified them that they would be monitored and mentored regularly at their training centers to track their progress, advising them to take their training seriously and to report any challenge to the bureau.
In the same vein, the Senior Special Assistants to the Governor on Job and Wealth Creation in the bureau, Barr Tony Omonemu, Hon Leonard Esegbue, Mr. Emmanuel Osazuwa and Mr. Frank Ebikefe enjoined them to make the training count in their lives having being among the few 600 enrollees who made it into the programme out of the over 23,000 that applied for the programme.
They tasked them to make their motivating factor for being part of the programme knowledge based and to work as instruments towards achieving the Stronger Delta vision of the State Government, urging them to make the training a priority.
Responding separately, Okoloko Okiemute (Warri South) in PoP, Painting and Screed-Making and Ashi Onwuka (Ukwuani LGA) in Fashion Design and Tailoring, expressed gratitude to the State Government for the job creation initiative. They pledged to take the training seriously in order to become self-employed and job creators.
By Gertrude Onyekachukwu-Uteh and Promise Ogana.