Youth Employability Skills (YES)
KIR FOUNDATION YES PROJECT PREPARING YOUTH FOR THE WORKPLACE
“I recently quit my job because I did not have the relevant Tech skills. This opportunity came at the
right time for me. I thank OctaFX because now I have the relevant skills to go back to work.”
-Rejoice Benson (UI/UX Design YES Alumni)
-Rejoice Benson (UI/UX Design YES Alumni)
The Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics estimates that 33.3% of youth in Nigeria are unemployed,
while 21.0% are under-employed. According to the 2022 ILO report notes;
“ A lack of decent work, if experienced at an early age, threatens to compromise a person’s future employment prospects and frequently leads to unsuitable labour behaviour patterns that last a lifetime. There is a demonstrated link between youth unemployment and social exclusion. An inability to find employment creates a sense of uselessness and idleness among young people that can lead to increased crime, mental health problems, violence, conflicts and drug taking.”
“ A lack of decent work, if experienced at an early age, threatens to compromise a person’s future employment prospects and frequently leads to unsuitable labour behaviour patterns that last a lifetime. There is a demonstrated link between youth unemployment and social exclusion. An inability to find employment creates a sense of uselessness and idleness among young people that can lead to increased crime, mental health problems, violence, conflicts and drug taking.”
That is why Keeping It Real (KIR) Youth Employability Skills (YES) Project is focused on preparing out-of-school youth with and without disabilities for the workplace by equipping them with the following market-relevant skills; Digital, Vocational and Soft/Life skills. We got a sponsorship from OctaFX to run the YES 6.0 project which was aimed at training 50 youth with and without disabilities (35 Males, 15 Females, 9 males and 3 females with disabilities) on Web Development (Front End and Back End), Graphic Design (UI/UX) Cyber Security and Database Administration and Photography and Cinematography.
The purpose of this project is aimed at strengthening the ICT ecosystem in the Niger Delta by
providing youth with training in market-relevant skills that will enable them to obtain jobs in ICT
and related sectors. The orientation ceremony was held on the 27th of May, 2022 with the
prospective trainees and the graduation ceremony took place on the 22nd of July, 2022. The
training commenced on Monday 9th of May, 2022 and ended on the 27th of July 2022. The total
duration of the training was 2 months.
