DENNIS UDOMA, Uyo
The Federal Government has graduated 600 trainees who are beneficiaries of the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Finance in Akwa Ibom.
The beneficiaries, who completed their one year vocational training recently in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital were trained in batches.
Project Director for GIS, Ministry of Finance Abuja, Mr. Peter Papka, while addressing the participants at the end of the programme in Uyo on Sunday, advised them to make effective use of the skills acquired during the training to improve their welfare.
Papka who was represented by the Chief Operations Officer (COO) for GIS, Mr. Kefas Hosea, explained that the scheme, which was initially funded by the defunct Subsidy Re-Investment Progrmme (SURE-P), became necessary to equip applicants with the necessary skills for jobs accessibility.
He explained also that, beneficiaries during the one year programme were paid monthly stipends of N30,000 and advised them to imbibe the culture of saving for small scale business development as government could not employ everybody.
According to him, “You may recall that at the onset of your engagement as an intern of the GIS, you had been energized to take maximum advantage of the opportunities that the scheme provides for you.
“These are in terms of both personal and social skills that you would acquire, leading to self-discovery, a redefinition of self esteem, self actualization as well as work skills, which are necessary for you to make a head way in your working or business life”.
He tasked the beneficiaries not to frustrate the scheme but, “refocus your energies into being an employer of labour as against being an employee” adding that, opportunities for being an employee in any organization is getting slimmer and more stiffly competitive.
“We believe that the skills and experience you have acquired through the GIS have placed you in a position to contribute meaningfully to national development. I wish to note that GIS is one of the many success stories of government’s effort to reduce graduate unemployment”, he said.
It is recalled that, the scheme was established by the Federal Government as interventionist measures to cushion the effect of graduate unemployment in the country, and has provided windows of opportunities for Nigerians to be self reliance in the past two years.
