The results of decades of terrible policies, incompetence, and corruption that have delivered us into poverty can be remedied by you and me gaining a skill.
The Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was established in March 2012 to “address” unemployment in the country by training corp members skills they will need to be self-employed in today’s challenging market. What we were told during orientation camp a little over a year ago was that if we learn any of these skills, some of which include fish farming, bead making, makeup artistry, soap making, fashion designing, baking, and sewing, we have a strong chance at becoming employers of labor rather than job seekers.
Since its establishment, the SAED programme has taught over 500,000 corp members; however, only 1,600 of the half a million trained have become full-time entrepreneurs. Why is that? That’s a 0.32 percent success rate, which suggests policy failure of the highest degree.
The SAED director (at my camp) even conceded that it was usual for corp members of her generation to get about three job offers to select from before the conclusion of the service year. What has changed between then and now is the twin evils of unemployment and poverty that have gripped the graduate young. Consequently, wealth is now the primary value of most Nigerians. Most young people go to university to boost their job prospects since we were told that we must earn a degree if we want an excellent job in today’s brutally competitive market. So why put us through a programme like SAED, which teaches us skills we do not need a degree to learn?
Below are the numerous sorts of SAED groups you can join and continue after the orientation camp.
Agro-allied
This SAED program connects with an organization involved in large-scale processing, manufacture and packaging of food using extremely modern technology and procedures. They are normally educated and instruct interested NYSC corp members in the skills in processing and packing of food. It certainly is a vital skill to master with the recent food processing and packaging trend.
ICT
SAED’s ICT sector discovers organizations eager to give forth knowledge on computer skills to pupils. These talents would include Microsoft Office, PowerPoint, web design, graphic design, program management, and more.
Power & Energy
Organizations that can instruct corp members on specific techniques to create electricity and energy are contacted in this area. The instruction includes how to build solar electricity and more. Knowledge on this can be a huge source of cash for corp members when taken seriously.
Automobile
The car portion of SAED, driving schools, is engaged to help corpers master the abilities to drive. A lot of serving corp members find themselves interested in this area which I feel is highly useful for all graduates to study.
Beautification
Beautification entails making cosmetic changes to a person, place or item. With the SAED program in the NYSC camp, it is normal to observe beauticians instruct corpers preliminary phases of artworks, embellishing photos, and all sorts.
Construction
This is more of the building sector. Most of the training in this section normally consists of bricklaying, building houses, building roads, and others like it. It is generally an engaging course for many corp members.
Cosmetology
The NYSC SAED associates with specialists involved in the make-over, makeup, skincare, hair and beauty goods. Corp members interested in this frequently develop essential abilities in refining and polishing the hairstyle of clients. With this experience, many corners create a livelihood from hair styling for special events.
Culture and tourism
The culture and tourism branch of SAED is interested in training fresh graduates on how to establish a business from culture and tourism. Culture and tourism lay importance on artworks, relics, and attractive centers of a town that stimulates the interest of travelers. Good knowledge of the business is vital if a person wishes to engage in it.
Education
In the education sector, organizations participating frequently educate corp members who have a passion for teaching and learning, in seeing the numerous potential in the education sector as well as how to do a business out of it.
Environment
The environment segment focused on teachings on the dangers affecting the environment. Training in environmental ecology and economics is taught.
Film and photography
The photography and film are involved in instructing corp members on how to operate cameras, both video and photo. To be able to produce outstanding video and images demands a skill that needs to be acquired. That is what this NYSC SAED sector is interested in teaching corp members.
Food Processing/Preservation
This area has to deal with technologies engaged in the processing and preservation of foods. NYSC Corp members interested in this are instructed on the newest technologies and strategies to use to process and preserve food. The course also teaches you how to establish a business out of it.
I urge you Corp members to make use of your service year, learn skills and master them, don’t be one of those people that I call skill-less people, and remember your time is precious, use that one year to set yourself up, build, construct yourself for the post NYSC life.
Enjoy the rest of your orientation camp. Be one of the Corpers who are going to finish well by becoming employers of labour.