By Stanley Iwuoha
In a bid to realize the set goals of job creation in the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu through Technology, the TechAdvantage Apprentiship program of Federal government has been unveiled in Abuja.
The TechAdvantage powered by the Ministery of Innovation, Science and Technology featured an entrepreneurship Masterclass for selected youths from across the country with a set target to train 500,000 youths in and create two million jobs in the next two years.
TechAdvantage is a marketplace where people cfrom.all.walks of life can register online and sell their products and services to potential customers.
Recall that the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji, has in February launched the TechAdvantage Platform to offer enterprising youths opportunity to upscale their skills in technology and transfer the skills to others.
Speaking at the event, the CEO of Sapphital, the organisers of the training, Mr. Amu Ogbeide, explained that the TechAdvantage platform was designed to create millions of jobs for young people, wherever they are across the country.
Also, he said the training is geared towards empowering millions of people with technological skills so that they can have the skills that they need to start up their own entrepreneur and train own ventures wherever they are in the country. We’re also able to create a marketplace where people can sell.
‘’We are gathered to discuss a very important part of Nigeria’s growth. We need Renewed Hope Agenda of the President, powered by the Minister for Innovation on Science and Technology, Chief Uchen Nnaji. We have set up a tech advantage platform that will be used to create millions of jobs across Nigeria, to create jobs for young people, wherever they are.
‘‘Also, we plan to train millions of people so that they can have the skills that they need to start up their own entrepreneur and train their own ventures wherever they are in the country. So, if I have a phone today, I can go and take advantage and I can sell my phone. If I’m a technician, I can go and take advantage and sell my service.
‘‘As a country, we believe that we can solve our problems together. We can create our own product advantage. And that’s what the Minister for Innovation on Science and Technology is pushing with this TechAdvantage program. We are looking at creating 2 million jobs in the next two years. We are starting with what we call the apprenticeship program, where we are going to grow. You know, apprenticeship is one of Nigeria’s favorite ways of training the next generation. Now, we’ve taken that online.
“So, wherever you are in Nigeria, you can apply for the apprenticeship program. You will learn the technical and the soft skills that you need to succeed. So, we are starting with 500,000 apprentices. But in the long run, we are looking at creating 2 million jobs in the next two years. So, today’s ceremony was to bring some of the various stakeholders together to unveil the apprenticeship program.’’
Also speaking, the Director General of National Centre for Technology Management. NACERTEM, Olusola Odusonya, said, ‘‘what we try to do is to construct new knowledge about how we learn and our society and make people learn new skills, using the GSM apprenticeship model of learning.
“For us in NACERTEM, it is important for us to create alternative means of learning, is a self-help thing, creating alternative means of livelihood. ”
On how to sustain the initiative, she said, ‘‘There should be some form of funds so that the opportunity would be used to train those coming behind.’’
‘‘We look into the future and we can see clearly, like the Digital of NASATEM has also said, that we can look at the future and see clearly that Nigeria is on a path to growth, a path to employment, creation and a path to youth empowerment.”
The Group CEO, Saphitile, Chinedu Ogbede said the TechAdvantage was built in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President to create millions of jobs for the youth.
‘‘The platform was built on credibility, and creating solutions to the society. What we are doing is to across the country to all of the GSO villages to register we are going across the country to register their members* Ɠ
According to him, the program is open to every Nigerians, no discrimination, whether you are educated or not, graduates and mother and a scholarships are there waiting. it is apprentice is for three months six month, the online program is three months, but at your own pace.
Narrating his experience, one of the trainees, said, ‘’I want to say that we learnt to find out the desires of the customers. I also learnt that it’s not just what you can offer, but how you can offer it and how you could package it.
Another trainee, Fatima Habukazi said, ‘One of the things that I learnt today is that apprenticeship is very important. In fact, in the African setting, we needa to really go about the apprenticeship, because that’s how it has always been. Nobody’s really coming to help us. We need to help ourselves at this time and to help our economy.’’
Also speaking on her experience, Fatima said, ‘‘Today, we have learnt so much and how to take advantage of every opportunity, we’re opportunity to participate and train in different courses, free courses.
“We learn how to interact with our customers and we learn and we’re given valuable sources and solutions to problem in entrepreneurship.’’
The opportunity is open to entrepreneurs, sellers, technicians and even the working group.
