By Chisom Onuoha
The Director General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, has revealed a recent commencement of a training of 1000 unemployed Nigerian youths on solar renewable energy.
Mallam Fikpo, hinted that the training kickstarted in December 2022, with beneficiaries that were carefully selected from all the States of the federation. He went on to say that the initiative is part of the efforts of the Federal Government to reduce unemployment in the country and boost energy provision for the economic growth of the nation.
Furthermore information explained that “Twenty Five (25) unemployed youths were recruited from each of the States across the federation, the FCT, Abuja and the national grid. Power supply has been the bane of economic growth and productivity especially within the industrial and informal sector.”
The D G added that candidates who are participating are being trained in various classifications of renewable energy under the umbrella of solar energy. They are to understand the concept of solar power, modes of solar panels production, systematic coatings necessary to improve performance of solar cells, defect detection methods for solar panels, solar reflectometry i.e. measuring solar reflectance and absorbance on surfaces to help mitigate climate change and the rest. He, said.
According to Mallam Fikpo, the participants training is tailored towards operational energy at moderate cost.
Giving more details on the Solar Energy Training (SET), the Director of Special Public Works (SPW), the Department supervising the training exercise, Mrs. Olaomi Roseline Silvia, said those recruited for the training exercise are unemployed graduates of higher institutions and diploma holders with technical background.
According to her, the participants are currently on a week theoretical cum practical intensive training after which they will be attached to major renewable energy firms in the country for more trainings and on- the-job and marketing experiences. The internship period will last three months.
She said “Government has also made provision of good monthly stipends to encourage the Participants”.
Meanwhile, NDE poised to enhance productivity and good service delivery in jobs creation and employment generation for year 2023, organized capacity building seminars and workshops for various cadres of its staff.
NDE DG, explained that the objective of the various workshops is to equip the NDE staffers with the requisite knowledge of modern administration and to imbibe right work ethics and attitude for efficient service delivery.
According to him, as the apex job creation agency of the Federal Government, NDE relates to many publics especially several classes of the unemployed in the country who are to be given new orientation on sustainable jobs and viable option of employment.
“Our personnel therefore have to be up to date in principles, standards, policies and guidelines that provide capabilities necessary for effective service delivery”.
In one of the workshops organized in conjunction with Rikadez Nigeria Limited for the Directorate’s human resources personnel, key papers that were presented included, Code of Ethics by Oyoyo Kate, Expectations from Public Servants by Audu Faisal Ibrahim, Discipline in the Civil Service by Mrs Folarin Dupeola, and Essentials of Time Management by Stella Chukwuma.
The resource persons charged the participants to deploy all resources necessary both physically and psychologically to their duty so as to be good service providers in counseling, reorientation and presentations of viable job options which borders on Skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development for self employment and reliance.
Teaching the participants on time management skills, the Head of Department for Human Resources, Mrs Stella Chukwuma, delved on importance of prioritizing, delegation, decision making, goal setting, multitasking, and scheduling. She said that good and prompt service delivery requires strategic thinking out of the box.
In a similar development, the Directorate also organized workshop for her key officers at the grass root from the 36 states across the nation on ways to form NDE beneficiaries into cooperative societies in order to ease ways of sourcing external funds for business expansion. Resouce persons were brought from the Federal Department of Cooperatives to train NDE officers on the modality and benefits of the initiative.
According to the Director General of the NDE, the Directorate will in 2023 perfect all avenues to encourage skills acquisition, entrepreneurship development and self-employment in Nigeria
Induction course was also organized for some of the newly employed staff of the Directorate. Highlight of the event was the distribution of certificates of attendance to the participants.
