UK firm partners Baptist Convention on youth unemployment

The Nigerian Baptist Convention and a United Kingdom consortium, AHEAD Strategies, UK, have concluded arrangements for an intervention on youth unemployment.

The Director, Youth and Students Ministries of the Convention, Rev Samuel Olaleyes told newsmen at the Nigerian Baptist Convention headquarters in Ibadan yesterday that under the arrangement, a two-day workshop on gainful employment strategies is being held for about 2,000 youths from different parts of the country who have already converged on Bowen University, Iwo.

The theme the workshop, he said, is “The Practical Intervention for Solving Youth Unemployment”. Lamenting that that youth unemployment in the country is of great concern for the church, he said the church cannot keep quiet and watch helplessly as the ugly trend continues.

“This is the reason

of why we have signed a three year Memorandum of Understanding with AHEAD Strategies to train our unemployed youths on how to secure jobs and be self-employed. This workshop is open to everybody irrespective of religion or tribe. We are expecting over 2,000 youths at the workshop,” Olaleye said.

Also speaking at the forum, the head of the team from the UK firm, Mr. Benjamin Taiwo assured that the workshop would help youths get exposed to job opportunities and how to meet up with their requirements.

“It will also assist the unemployed individuals to meet the requirement of the outside job market. They will be developed technologically and know how to apply it in applying for a job. Also they will be tutored on how to be self employed and create opportunities for the unemployed individuals, because only 9 per cent owned and run their businesses in Nigeria and there is a need to expand it and know how to run it successfully,” he stated.