By Rita Esegine
A total of one thousand, four hundred and twenty-five graduates from various Nigerian tertiary institutions have been sent to corporate organizations in the country for internship programmes by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), said a press statement.
The statement, signed by NDE’s Deputy Director Press and Public Relations, Edmund Onwunliri, further explained that NDE commenced the the deployment of unemployed graduates across 18 states of the federation under the Graduate Attachment Programme (GAP) of the angency.
Partly, the statement said; “Eighteen states from each of the six geo-political zones and the FCT were selected for this phase of the internship programme as follows: Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna, Sokoto, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Enugu, Imo, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and the FCT.
“The Graduate Attachment Programme (GAP) is an intervention aimed at addressing the alarming rate of graduate unemployment countrywide.
“The purpose of the scheme is to provide transient employment opportunities for unemployed graduates of tertiary institutions thereby reducing the incidence of long-term unemployment caused by the curtailment of employable entrants into the work space in Nigeria.
“It also aims at enhancing the employability of the unemployed graduates as well as reducing youth restiveness among young Nigerians.
“In the course of the attachment programme, participants are expected to acquire requisite practical work experience and possibly prove their indispensability to the organisation they are deployed which could lead to possible retention at the end of the internship period.
“The internship programme is for a period of three (3) to six(6) months. Among the eligibility criteria is for all participants to have completed the mandatory one-year national service.
“The Graduate Attachment Programme is one of the transient job schemes under the Special Public Works Programme of the National Directorate of Employment.”
End.
