Schneider Electric, partners launch powering job campaign
-- Schneider
in partnership with PowerForAll and Rockerfeller Foundation, has launched a campaign to develop human capital towards curbing a widening unemployment gap in the power sector.
The powering jobs campaign became necessary sequel to a recent study by PowerForAll which revealed that there is an urgent need to develop human capital in Nigeria and other sub-Saharan countries, in order to secure their participation in job creation and economic growth.
The report showed a huge agos gap, which is growing, in the available renewable energy jobs to Nigerians compared to what is available globally.
Out of a total 10.3 million jobs that will be created to cater for 1 billion people without electricity, a paltry 76,000 (less than 1 percent) is available to Nigeria, whose teeming young population needs it most.
In order to change the narrative, the interactive brainstorming sessions at the campaign launch were themed “Increasing investment in decentralised renewable energy (DRE)focussed education towards job creation and economic growth” and “Galvanising stake holders’ action for human capital needed to achieve SDG 7”.
In his keynote address, Moyosore Sodipe, the head for Access to Energy Business Development for Anglophone West Africa, stated that “Schneider Electric is committed to tackling the challenge of jobs shortage in the energy sector and had already begun”.
He noted that the collaborating partners will equip Nigerians in order to take advantage of the window of opportunity to create jobs and groom entrepreneurs.
Identifying a list of products and activities people at the bottom of the
pyramid could engage in for quick wins on job creation, he noted the relevance of Schneider Electric’s training programmes in technical and vocational schools.