The Head, National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Ondo State Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development, SAED, programme, Mrs. Itohan Ehimwenma has advised corps members to acquire a skill or vocation before the end of their service year.
Mrs. Ehimwenma, who is an Assistant Director at the NYSC secretariat stated this during a sensitisation programme for corps members held at the Akure zonal office, Oda Road, Akure.
According to her, corps members should take advantage of every opportunity presented to them to be financially independent now that the economy is passing through a challenging period.
She reiterated that the SAED programme initiated and fully supported by the scheme was a platform where they could acquire numerous skills and at the same time benefit from several funding options designed to make life more comfortable for the corps members.
She said that those who did not take their destinies in their hands or take advantage of several windows of opportunity would no doubt become incurable liabilities in the nearest future, adding that, “it is no more an era of certificate but ‘serviticate’ since many employers are more interested in the services the job seekers can render and not the worth of their certificates.”
“If you don’t plan for your future, the future will meet you without plan because your output is dependent on your present input sice you cannot give what you do not have,” she said.
Mr. Henry Okeke, CEO of Citi Education and Business Consult, during his motivational lecture explained that life was a bowl to be filled and not emptied as the available jobs in the country according to him, were highly competitive and only the best and those who were well connected could get the job.
He urged corps members to always have comparative advantage over their competitors as well as trade their time for money if they must create wealth, adding that they needed to strategise, explore and utilise opportunities as they might come.
Okeke advised them to decide on their career paths by identifying their passion and personality, develop the right attitude towards taking calculated risks because it was risky not to take risk.
He asserted that “it is only the amount of air pumped into a balloon that will determine the height it would fly.”
The CEO of Value Connect, Mr. Samuel Kolawole, equally sensitised corps members about Value Connect Academy and the benefits accruable to them.
He said that the world had become a global village which had advanced and anyone striving not to be left behind must move with the tides of change.
At the sensitisation programme, corps members were introduced to various skills and professional courses by facilitators and trainers who urged them to develop themselves and identify a skill which could give them comparative advantage in the labour market.
Some of the trainings under SAED included computer software programming, farming, hairdressing, cosmetology, barbing, fashion designing, ICT, make-up and gele tying among others.
