GOUNI partners European private sector to curtail youth migration –VC

Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu State, in partnership with the European private sector, plans to impart practical skills in Nigeria youths, to curtail their rate of migration.Prof Christian Anieke, the Vice Chancellor of the catholic university, disclosed this at a news conference on Tuesday, in Abuja.

He said that the level of migration by Nigerian youth was worrisome, adding that it was no longer about unskilled migration but that the skilled youths had joined the fray. Anieke said that the centre for practical skills acquisition to be sited at the University by the European team, was a unique intervention in the country. He added that it would help Nigerian youths to compete favourably with their European counterparts.”We have not had this kind of intervention before, for any European university to have interest in this kind of projects” He said that about 150 youths across the country would be engaged in the skill acquisition training, beginning from Nov. 18, 2021, and that the numbers would be scaled up to 5,000 eventually.

According to the Vice Chancellor, in the next 5 years, the institution envisaged 5,000 youths with 10 different companies from Europe having already signified interest in the projects. Anieke added that the practical training would be aligned with the needs of the European company, stressing that the University would make it easy for the trainees. He said that the youths would be taught electronic installation, transportation technology, among others, adding that they would be given European certifications at the end of the exercise, which would ensure that they could also be employed in Europe, if they chose to leave the country.

The vice chancellor said that the trainees, who would want to establish their own businesses, would be provided the requisite loan as start-up capital, and that this would be the university’s contribution to the challenges of youth migration. Prof Armstrong Idachaba, a visiting professor to the institution, said that the Centre for Practical Skills was a big opportunity for the youth, adding that the school would collaborate to mitigate the spate of migrations.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the groundbreaking opening of the skills acquisition programme would take place on Nov 18 in Enugu State (NAN)