Gov. Soludo Approves Free Retraining And Certification For All 1Youth2Skills Master Trainers

Gov. Soludo Approves Free Retraining And Certification For All 1Youth2Skills Master Trainers

As part of the plans of the Government of Anambra State to ensure quality assurance in the 1Youth2Skills Programme, the Governor of the State, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo has approved a free restraining and certification for all Master Trainers and Training Institutes by a reputable and recognized certification agency. The Commissioner for Youth Development, Mr. Patrick Agha Mba announced this while speaking on the third day of the revalidation exercise for Business Owners and Vocational Institutes that applied to serve as trainers in the second phase of 1Youth2Skills Programme. Mr. Agha Mba stated that the approval of the free restraining and certification for all the training centers was to ensure that the centers where the youths of Anambra State would be trained are of the highest standard in line with government policy direction.

The Commissioner also commended the Governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, who he described as youth friendly for approving the Second Phase of 1Youth2Skills Solution, under which 10,000 Anambra youths will be empowered with Vocational and Entrepreneurship skills as well as funds for business start-up and expansion. He reported that apart from the restraining and certification of the training centers, the second phase of 1Youth2Skills will be coming with other innovations, which include the Youths To Agriculture Scheme (YTAS), Anawood Scheme, use of GPS Coordinate in project monitoring, Online Entrepreneurship Programme and application of digital technology in data management.

The commissioner expressed his delight that the beneficiaries of the first phase of the programme are already doing  very well based on Impact Assessment conducted independently by the Ministry and Strategy Evaluation and Execution (SEE). He stated that the beneficiaries had also organized themselves under Solution Youth-Preneurs Support Group (SYPSG) to assist Mr. Governor in actualizing the goal of every Anambra youth having a minimum of two skills in line with the Anambra Vision 2070 Framework and the People's Manifesto. 

It could be recalled that the government of Anambra State in October 2023 empowered 5,000 youths with N2billion Grant for Equipment Financing in the first phase of 1Youth2Skills Solution. As part of the 1Youth2Skills Business Financing Scheme, the government also made provision for N2.5billion to be assessed as Working Capital by the  beneficiaries from Anambra Small Business Agency (ASBA) through 1Youth2Skills Cooperatives.

The training centers revalidation exercise, which began on Monday 24th June 2024 at ASATU Hall, Government House, Awka, is being used to assess the current status of the 2000 applicants that were successful in the first phase of the screening exercise conducted in November 2023 for over 8000 applicants. It has already witnessed the revalidation of centers from twelve Local Government Areas across the state, while training centers from Aguata, Onitsha North, Onitsha South, Ekwusigo, Ihiala, Nnewi North, Nnewi South, Orumba North and Orumba South were revalidated on Thursday 27th June 2024. Plans are already underway for a mop-up on Saturday 29th June 2024 to bring the exercise to a close.

Important personalities present during the event were the Director of Youth Ministry of Youth Development, Mrs Chito Osili, the Special Assistant To The Governor On Youth Development, Engr. Emeka Tony Omatah, Executive Assistant To The Governor On Youth, Hon. Chibuzor Udeh, as well as Prince Godspower Olottah, Chike Egbuna and Leonard Nwadike, who are business development consultants and members of 1Youth2Skills Technical Committee.