Global technology company, Intel, has taken a value-adding initiative to train members of the Nigerian Youth Service Corp in technology and entrepreneurship.
The one-week free training is the first of several that will stretch across other states of the federation with Lagos being the initial state in the pilot phase of the technology and entrepreneurship project, according to Intel.
“The training of youth corps members is part of Intel’s corporate social responsiveness to the educational needs of our society. The week-long free training strives to equip youth corps members with necessary skills to cope in the 21st century workplace, taking them through an intense technology-entrepreneurship scheme,” the Corporate Affairs Manager, Intel West Africa, Mr. Osagie Ogunbor, said.
Ogunbor said the initiative was introduced out of the necessity to stimulate interest in entrepreneurship towards establishing businesses and ultimately reducing the increasing unemployment problem in Nigeria.
“The changing trends in the global economy are increasingly becoming knowledge-based and being driven by advances in Information and Communication Technology, and this has significantly raised the stakes in the labour market,” he said.
As graduates preparing to enter the labour market, he said the possession of technical knowledge on its own would not suffice, but ownership of complementary life skills to deliver the highest possible value in any field of endeavour was the ultimate task.
Ogunbor said Intel was working closely with the Youth Enterprise With Innovation In Nigeria to further encourage the growth of individual businesses as part of the solutions to unemployment.
Courtesy of YOUWIN, the youth corps members being trained are entered into a business plan competition where they stand a chance of getting seed capital for businesses they may want to set up.
According to Ogunbor, the initiative is just one of the several technology/education-based initiatives championed by Intel towards improving the quality of life of people around the world.