During the launch of the 50 billion Dollars fundraising event by West African Youth Peace Mission (WAYPEM), Ayodele Olawande, minister of state for youth development, represented by his chief-of-staff, represented by Mohammed Abdullahi, said the government has plans to introduce an internship programme in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
The programme aims to enhance the development of skills and ensure the employability of Nigerian youths. and bridge the gap between academic learning and real-world work experience.
The internship programme is different from the Skills Acquisition & Entrepreneurship Department (SAED) programme that is currently carried out in NYSC camps. As most NYSC members have never worked before, with the help of this internship programme, they will have first-hand experience of what it is like to work, and in the process, they can also learn out-of-school skills.
The CEO of HighJobLink Limited, Godwin Uche Fafemi explained that if truly the internship programme is integrated into the NYSC structure, it will provide corps members with needed experience in different sectors of the economy and arm more youths with up-to-date skills for the 21st-century workforce.
Despite NYSC members being graduates of different professional courses, they usually still don’t have an edge or advantage in the labour market once their service years are over. So, this programme will ensure that they are sent to where their professional skills will be enhanced.
