Govt Should Equip Vocational Centres – Wuraola
What is the aim of this event?
The reason why Junior Achievement Nigeria organised this ‘creating tomorrow today’ is because we have been working with young people over the years and we realised that there was a need for them to take decisive steps on how their tomorrow will be. And they cannot plan about tomorrow if they don’t know about today, or if they don’t know how today is. And the way to know how today is, is by being aware of their environment, by making contact with people who have gone ahead of them, who have experiences, and that is why we have the speakers who are here to share experiences and to tell them about how life really is and for them to realise that, it is not everybody that will be a doctor, or engineer; there are other opportunities out there. If you want to be a civil servant, then you have to plan ahead and know how you can get into the civil service and rise up to be a director. If you want to work in the private sector, to be a good manager and become the managing director of that company, or you want to run your own business and be an entrepreneur, how you are going to start knowing that it is not easy to start a business. Are you going to do a service or product, the need to know and plan for tomorrow by your actions, knowledge of today, by their exposure in terms of people they would come in contact with. Those are some reasons why we decided to have this programme because we just talk and talk or read, read and read, but we want to make it more practical.
You have been doing this for long now, and you must have talked to a lot of youth, do you have any mechanism in place to monitor their responses?
Yes, for instance, one of the speakers is one of our old students. Mr Gbenga Sesan, is the managing director of Paradigm Initiative, there are other students who are also here, we try as much as possible to monitor them because we started about 13 years ago in primary schools. So most of our students have gone through secondary schools, universities, few of them are just coming out and we are monitoring them, we keep data on them we have ways to find out what they are doing at any point in time, we have an alumni association. We are not only based in Abuja, we have offices in Lagos, Port Harcourt and in about other 16 different locations. So it might be a bit difficult, but in our way, we are trying so much because, it is only when we get the feedback that we can know what we are doing and how what we are doing is affecting lives, that we can truly say what we have taught them in Junior Achievement is making impact. But the ones we have seen have shown that our programmes they went through made an impact in their lives.
How do you help them with funding that would enable them take off?
Well, let me tell you this, we can pass the knowledge and create the opportunity but we don’t give funds. For instance, we have the out of school youth programme we have just started. We are working in Gichiri and Sauda, they are people who are not too literate but we are hoping that with some skills, we are going to open up a channels for them with, may be, micro finance institutions, and other organisations that can give them soft loan so that they can own their businesses if they want to. But they have to be able to show that when they get the money, they would use it for what it is meant and that they have the skills to manage the business, so that if they get loans they will be able to pay back even if it is at low or no interest rate and still have their capital. Apart from that, you can go and ask for money from someone without having anything on your own, you must have some form of savings. These are things that we teach them.
We have had students in the past, who created prototypes of different things which were later abandoned. With these youth here, how do you think you can help them even after they have left secondary school?
That is why we are keeping in touch and that is what this programme is all about, creating tomorrow today. Do they just create that prototype for creating sake or are they convinced that this is what they should do? There is no way you can have passion about something and then you leave it. Some people just do it as a project done in school but not what they want to concentrate on. If those youth are truly and genuinely passionate and convinced that this is the way they needed to go, there are many organisations and people out there who are willing to support them but they need to show commitment, once you have it, it’s only a matter of time, those who will support you, will support you. We will link you with people who will support you.
Government plans and programme for youth don’t really get to them, YOUWIN, SURE, YEP. What advice do you have for the government to ensure that they channel more of their resources to youth like this?
This is how it works, you are the one that would have to say you are here, you can do this or that, and it is for us as organisations who are working with younger people to push them out more. There is no way people in government will not see what these people are doing when we push them out into the face of the government. But when we do our programmes in the corner and nobody knows what we are doing, then these youths won’t get the exposure they need.
So what we need do is to expose them so that government and people who can support would see. We have to put them in the face of everybody that these are the things our young people are doing.
Have your organisation been having interactions with the government on this?
The closest we can work with government (because we all know how our country is, how easy getting aid can be, the channel and processes, if you write to them, it may take some time) but we work with the ministry of Science and Technology, the secondary education board, they are the ones now saying we want to be part of this, because we have been about to push for them to see what we are doing. If they are pushing in Abuja and we are pushing in Lagos and then we have a national competition that everybody knows about and the government agencies that are involved are on board, they would tell them to put it in their budget because these young people doing this programme need funding and more training so that they can help them.
Our vocational centres have to be better equipped that is another way the government can help and employers of labour should not look down on those who have not gone to polytechnic or university. We should look at people who are doing vocational work too, they should also be given their due respect and there should be more opportunities created for them because they are the ones that would solve so many of our issues. May be in the power sector, health sector because they are skilled and they can be good entrepreneurs and become also employers of labour.
You have youths from about 10 schools present here, what are the criteria for choosing those that would participate?
Here in Abuja, we are working with over 50 schools because before you work in schools you have to get approval from the ministry and we want to work with as many as possible. But if we are bringing something to you, you have to also be willing to take, some schools will say they already have enough extra curriculum activities but the first 10 to respond are those given the chance to be part of the programme.
So this is like grooming the youth from the cradle?
Yes, we are building a bridge between the class room and the work place either as a manager or as an entrepreneur. We want to build that bridge and provide youth with opportunities and skills, information, knowledge to go across that bridge from the class to where you work in life.
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