The National Directorate of Employment, NDE, says it has trained over 30, 000 youths in Edo State, as part of efforts to check the rate of unemployment in the country.
 
Co-ordinator of the agency in Edo State, Ayo Edegbai, disclosed this to journalists in Benin, the state capital during an orientation ceremony for newly recruited trainees for the National Open Apprenticeship programme of the directorate.
 
Edegbai explained that the NDE intervenes directly through employment counselling service; skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development training; provision of transient jobs and enterprise creation for trained beneficiaries.
 
“Everyone needs skills in the modern world we live in, be you graduates, under-graduates, the unemployed and everybody in the society,” she stressed.
 
While congratulating the trainees, she urged them to utilize the opportunity provided by the Directorate to improve their lives, noting that NDE centers across the State have good equipment, as well as the necessary manpower.
 
“I urge you to make the best use of this opportunity and transform yourselves for the better,” she said.
 
Also speaking at the occasion, chairman, National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN, Edo State, Ijogbe Solomon, hailed the programme, while noting that the skills acquisition was far more important than merely having certificates.