By Ifeoma Aniagbado :
The Anambra State Ministry of Youth Development has continued revalidation of the master trainers to update data of trainers in the LGAs of the state.
The Local Government Areas that were revalidated includes; Anambra East, Anambra West, Ayamelum, Dunukaofia, Njikoka, Idemili North, Idemili South, Ogbaru, Aguata and Oyi.
Addressing the master trainers at the ASATU hall, Government House Awka, the Commissioner for Youth Development, Mr. Patrick Agha Mba stated that the aim of the exercise was to ensure that the centers where the youths would be trained are of the needed standard.
Mr. Agha Mba commended the Governor Chukwuma Soludo, whom he described as youth-friendly, for approving the Second Batch of 1Youth 2Skills Solution.
He stated that the second phase of 1 Youth 2 Skills Program would be coming with a lot of innovations, which include the retraining and certification of master trainers by a recognized and reputable agency as a means of ensuring that the quality assurance emphasis of Mr. Governor on the standard of training is achieved.
Mr. Agha Mba further maintained that the retraining and certification will be free of charge for the selected Master Trainers as the governor has approved that the Government of Anambra State would bear the cost, adding that other innovations to the program are the Youths To Agriculture Scheme (YTAS), Anawood Scheme, use of GPS Coordinate in project monitoring, Online Entrepreneurship Program and application of digital technology in data management.
He also said that the second phase of the program would also witness the empowerment of 10,000 Anambra youths in the Apprenticeship, Entrepreneurship, Business Financing and Mentorship Schemes of the programme – a 100% improvement on the previous phase.
The commissioner expressed his delight that the beneficiaries of the first batch of 1Youth 2 Skills Programme are already doing very well based on Impact Assessment conducted independently by the ministry and Strategy Evaluation and Execution (SEE).
He stated that the beneficiaries had also organized themselves under Solution Youth-Preneurs Support Group (SYPSG) to assist Mr. Governor in actualizing the goal of every Anambra youth having a minimum of two skills.
The event was well attended by the key management team of the ministry, the Chairman of NASME – Mr. Chinemerem Oguegbe, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Youth Development – Mr Emeka Tony Omatah, Executive Assistant to the Governor on Youth Development – Mr Chibuzor Udeh, the team member from ANSICTA – Mr. Tochukwu Ebeku, as well as Prince Godspower Olotta and Leonard Nwadike, who are business development consultants, members of 1 Youth 2 Skills among others.
* Aniagbado is of the Ministry of Information, Anambra State *