The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in Enugu state, says it has trained 66 unemployed graduates in the state under its Graduate Attachment Programme (GAP).
The GAP is an intervention designed to address the alarming level of graduate unemployment in the country by providing them with transient jobs.
The benefiting graduates must have completed the mandatory one year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) service but in some cases, holders of the Ordinary National Diploma (OND) and the Nigeria Certificate on Education (NCE) were also considered.
Mrs. Chika Onah, the state coordinator of the directorate, who made the disclosure at a press briefing in Enugu on Monday, said that the graduates were selected from across the 17 local government areas of the state.
Onah said that the GAP programmes had two batches, noting that the first batch were 50 people, while the second batch were 16.
The coordinator said that the first batch of 50 persons had concluded their three months programme, while the second batch of 16 were still ongoing.
She said that the GAP was meant for unemployed graduates of tertiary institution with NYSC certificate. Onah said the beneficiaries were attached to various ministries, parastatals, agencies and private sectors to get job experience.
The state coordinator urged the beneficiaries to put in their best wherever they were posted, as it might earn them permanent jobs. She charged them to be NDE ambassadors wherever they found themselves.
In his speech, the deputy director of NDE, Mr. Tony Okum, explained that the essence of the programme was to expose them to labour market and to get job experience.
Okum said that most times, the beneficiaries might be lucky and get retained if well behaved during the programme.
In her remarks, the head of department of Special Public Works, Mrs. Lucy Nna, said that GAP was one of the programmes under her department.
Nna encouraged the beneficiaries to be of good behaviour in their place of posting as it may earn them better opportunity tomorrow. While expressing their gratitude, two of the beneficiaries, Miss Precious Akahalu and Mrs. Augustina Jideofor commended NDE for the great job they were doing especially on the lives of unemployed graduates in the state. (NAN)
Police recovers bodies of 6 personnel in Bayelsa boat mishap (SS)
The Bayelsa state police command, on Sunday, said it has recovered the bodies of six policemen that went missing after a boat mishap while on duty for the December 4, 2020, bye-election in the state.
The command, in a statement signed by its Police Public Relations Officer, SP Asinim Butswat, said that the bodies of the missing police personnel were recovered by a combined team of officers from the Marine Department of the command and local divers.
Recall that a speedboat conveying eleven policemen had during the election capsized and five policemen were immediately rescued while six were declared missing.
Butswat, while expressing the command’s condolences with the families of the deceased said the bodies had been deposited in one of the morgues in the state. He further stated that investigation had commenced to ascertain the cause of the mishap.